NASA’s InSight Lander Will Keep Hunting For Marsqakes As It Runs Out Of Power

InSight’s seismometer is being prioritized because that is the lander’s primary instrument for studying marsquakes. Like Earth, Mars is periodically shaken by quakes, but unlike Earth, these aren’t caused by tectonic plates. There are competing theories about whether these quakes are caused by fractures in the crust caused by the planet cooling or by volcanic activity beneath the surface (via phys.org). InSight has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes in its mission to date since it landed in 2018. Its primary mission was to study the marsquakes for two years, and this was extended so the lander could keep collecting data as long as possible.

By studying marsquakes, researchers can learn about the interior structure of Mars. They can see how the quakes pass through the interior of the planet, and from this they can deduce how solid or liquid the different layers are. Thanks to InSight, we know that Mars has a core 1,137 miles in radius, which is molten (unlike the core of Earth, which is solid) and surrounded by a mantle stretching 969 miles below the surface, as well as a crust that is surprisingly thin and may have two or three sublayers (via JPL).

This information isn’t only teaching us about Mars, but it also gives us an idea of what other rocky exoplanets might be like. “InSight has transformed our understanding of the interiors of rocky planets and set the stage for future missions,” said Lori Glaze, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA. “We can apply what we’ve learned about Mars’ inner structure to Earth, the Moon, Venus, and even rocky planets in other solar systems.”