Researchers reveal what’s buried deep under Mars’ surface

Watch Ingenuity helicopter's 72 flights on Mars

Designed to be a technology demonstration that would take five flights in 30 days, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter eventually flew more than 14 times farther and logged more than two hours of total flight time. This video shows all 72 flights on Mars, including the final flight on Jan. 18, 2024. (Video: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Fragments left behind from massive space debris that struck Mars about 4.5 billion years ago are believed to be buried deep beneath the planet’s surface, according to new research published in the journal Science.

The discovery was made possible by NASA’s retired InSight lander, which carried a highly sensitive seismometer that recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes during its four-year-long mission. 

By analyzing the data, researchers found that the energy associated with seismic waves was slowed and scrambled as they passed through the planet’s mantle.

According to the study, the irregularities are likely the signatures of massive fragments left behind by collisions during Mars’ violent early history.

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"We’ve never seen the inside of a planet in such fine detail and clarity before," Constantinos Charalambous of Imperial College in London stated. "What we’re seeing is a mantle studded with ancient fragments. Their survival to this day tells us Mars’ mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years. On Earth, features like these may well have been largely erased."

By determining how seismic waves travel through different kinds of rock, scientists were able to map out the Red Planet’s crust, mantle and core.

Stitched together from 28 images, this view from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was captured after the rover ascended the steep slope of a geologic feature called "Greenheugh Pediment." In the distance at the top of the image is the floor of Gale Crater, which is near a region called Aeolis Dorsa that researchers believe was once a massive ocean.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have tectonic plates, which means that instead of plate boundaries triggering earthquakes, shaking is primarily caused by cracking rocks and meteoroid impacts. 

"Of the two types, meteoroid impacts on Mars produce high-frequency seismic waves that travel from the crust deep into the planet’s mantle, according to a paper published earlier this year in Geophysical Research Letters. Located beneath the planet’s crust, the Martian mantle can be as much as 960 miles thick and is made of solid rock that can reach temperatures as high as 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit," NASA stated.

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The study raises broader questions about the formation and evolution of other rocky planets in the solar system, such as Venus and Mercury. 

NASA’s InSight mission officially ended in 2022, after dust accumulated on its solar panels, which reduced its ability to generate power and submit data.

Unlike the lander mission, the current Mars rovers are not equipped with seismometers, but scientists continue to analyze data gathered by InSight.

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