https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/24/world/mars-seismic-waves-scn/index.html

CNN —
When quakes rumbled on Mars and a meteorite smacked into the red planet during the past four years, NASA’s InSight lander collected soundwaves that helped reveal secrets of the Martian interior.

During these events, InSight detected for the first time seismic waves traveling through the Martian core. Now, scientists have used the lander’s data to determine that Mars has a liquid iron-alloy core that also includes lightweight elements such as sulfur and oxygen, as well as smaller amounts of hydrogen and carbon.

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Planetary core offers clues on evolution
Earth has a liquid outer core and a solid inner core, but the Martian core appears to be made entirely from liquid. Mars’ core is also slightly denser and smaller than scientists believed, with a radius of approximately 1,106 to 1125 miles (1,780 to 1,810 kilometers).

Goodo.

Here’s the paper
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217090120

First observations of core-transiting seismic phases on Mars

dv said:

Here’s the paper
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217090120

First observations of core-transiting seismic phases on Mars

Good. Not enough quakes for Insight to fully map the core.

In other Mars news.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2370417-amazing-images-of-marss-moon-deimos-snapped-by-emirates-mars-mission/

Amazing images of Mars’s moon Deimos snapped by United Arab Emirates spacecraft Mars Mission.

The Hope orbiter got closer to Mars’s moons Deimos and Phobos than any probe before.

The measurements included pictures and ultraviolet and infrared observations, with data on areas of Deimos that have never been examined in any detail before. All this allowed the orbiter, which launched in July 2020 and entered orbit around Mars in February 2021, to shed light on how Deimos .

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

Here’s the paper
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217090120

First observations of core-transiting seismic phases on Mars

Good. Not enough quakes for Insight to fully map the core.

In other Mars news.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2370417-amazing-images-of-marss-moon-deimos-snapped-by-emirates-mars-mission/

Amazing images of Mars’s moon Deimos snapped by United Arab Emirates spacecraft Mars Mission.

The Hope orbiter got closer to Mars’s moons Deimos and Phobos than any probe before.

The measurements included pictures and ultraviolet and infrared observations, with data on areas of Deimos that have never been examined in any detail before. All this allowed the orbiter, which launched in July 2020 and entered orbit around Mars in February 2021, to shed light on how Deimos .

Certainly impressive.

https://www.sciencealert.com/in-an-incredible-first-scientists-have-discovered-whats-at-the-core-of-mars

DV how do they determine the presence of other elements in the core?

Witty Rejoinder said:

https://www.sciencealert.com/in-an-incredible-first-scientists-have-discovered-whats-at-the-core-of-mars

DV how do they determine the presence of other elements in the core?

Geophys people have magic powers.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

https://www.sciencealert.com/in-an-incredible-first-scientists-have-discovered-whats-at-the-core-of-mars

DV how do they determine the presence of other elements in the core?

Geophys people have magic powers.

There’s a great deal of uncertainty about that, which is not made evident by this news article. Basically you can model geochemical evolution to narrow down what’s likely to be there for given combinations of P-wave speed, S-wave speed (in the solid parts) and density. Now that we have that profile for the whole planet we can work out what is likely to be in the core. The Martian core is less dense than Earth’s so yeah this does suggest a higher amount of non-metals but the accuracy of specific chemical predictions remains moot, and is likely to forever.

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

https://www.sciencealert.com/in-an-incredible-first-scientists-have-discovered-whats-at-the-core-of-mars

DV how do they determine the presence of other elements in the core?

Geophys people have magic powers.

There’s a great deal of uncertainty about that, which is not made evident by this news article. Basically you can model geochemical evolution to narrow down what’s likely to be there for given combinations of P-wave speed, S-wave speed (in the solid parts) and density. Now that we have that profile for the whole planet we can work out what is likely to be in the core. The Martian core is less dense than Earth’s so yeah this does suggest a higher amount of non-metals but the accuracy of specific chemical predictions remains moot, and is likely to forever.

Thanks.