NASA’s InSight probe made it possible to look deep into the Martian surface. Amazing events from the past can be found there.
Pasadena / Zurich – Hotel NASA Lander “Insights”* Planet Mars. Unlike the Curiosity and Perseverance rover, InSight cannot move from its position, but can still inspect a large area of the Red Planet from its landing site – because InSight’s focus is directed downwards, inside the Red Planet. Since landing, NASA probes, for example, have discovered, How was the interior of Mars built?* and have Many Martian earthquakes have been measured and recorded* Now Insight has looked again beneath the surface of the Red Planet and presented research with data that can be used to analyze soil at a depth of 200 meters.
“If one day people will be active Mars* On Earth, they have to know what’s under their feet,” the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich wrote on its website, dedicated to the InSight Mars lander. ETH has developed and maintains an instrument aboard the Mars probe: a seismometer. ETH experts have now used a method developed on Earth to use a seismometer to find out what the ground looks like under the title “InSight”.
NASA research analyzes beneath the surface of Mars to a depth of 200 meters
To do this, they used surface waves that are generated when winds hit Martian structures such as craters or mountains. Depending on the density of the material below the surface, waves propagate in it differently – from them it is possible to draw conclusions about the material. The researchers were able to map the subsurface at a depth of 200 meters. They found different layers:
- The main class: It consists of regolith, mainly sandy material – about three meters thick
- second layer: Consists of larger rocks – about 15 meters thick
- Third layer: Lava flow – about 150 meters thick
- In the middle of the third layer: Sediment layer at a depth of 30 to 75 meters
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Mars probe “Insight”: Was there a major meteorite impact?
With the help of seismometers, scientists can extract all kinds of information from these different layers. The second layer, consisting of larger rock, is said to have formed as a result of a meteorite impact on Mars: it was ejecta that was thrown into the air by a meteorite impact and fell back to the surface. The first dry lava flows began beneath the first two layers and are thought to date from about 1.7 billion years ago.
The researchers suspect that a layer of sedimentary rock 40 meters thick separates the first lava flow from the second – this fine-grained sediment may have been formed by wind or water. Deep lava flows formed about 3.6 billion years ago, at a time when there was significant volcanic activity on Mars, according to the study. Published in Nature Communications has become. “This helps us tell the time between different activities,” explains Bruce Banerdt, a member of the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). NASA* and co-authors of the study, opposite the reverse gate.
Mars research: Study shows long lag in volcanic activity
“The fact that this sedimentary layer is sandwiched between two volcanic layers indicates that volcanic activity has stopped – a very long pause because it takes so long for sedimentary rock to form.” Geologists can conclude that “not only is there a uniform history of volcanism, but it may have occurred in multiple pulses,” Bannerdt continued.
With the help of a seismometer, NASA’s InSight probe allows researchers to peer into 200 meters of Martian soil. (artist impression)
© ETH Zurich / Géraldine Zenhäusern
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Why has Mars been explored in such detail?
But why are people looking for Mars so closely? “We know the structure of the Earth very well, but we don’t know exactly how it came to be the way it is,” explains Banerdt. However, many of the early processes that formed Mars are still intact on Mars, where there is less geological activity than on Earth. “Mars hasn’t been touched much,” Bannerdt insisted, and continued: “We can look at the internal structure of Mars and pretty much conclude that Earth would have looked like this 4.5 billion years ago.” The goal is to better understand how the Earth originated.
The InSight mission aims to answer fundamental questions about the formation of rocky planets through Mars exploration. Because in our solar system alone there are four of them – which evolved quite differently after their formation in the hot solar nebula: while Earth is friendly to life, Venus is a shining hell, and Mercury has enormous temperature fluctuations.
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Mars is cold and inhospitable, with almost no atmosphere and no magnetic field to protect the surface. However, the mission was always to seek life there – the last one was Mars research “perseverance” answers important questions*, picture, sent by NASA rover to Earth*cause a stir and A NASA video shows historic events on Mars*. (tab) * fr.de view from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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