{"id":147893,"date":"2025-09-16T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147893\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T17:30:07","slug":"confirmed-by-nasa-mars-has-a-hidden-solid-core-that-changes-everything-we-knew-about-the-red-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147893\/","title":{"rendered":"Confirmed by NASA\u2014Mars has a hidden solid core that changes everything we knew about the red planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mars, that planet that has been the center of many studies<\/a>, has revealed something surprising in a NASA mission. Thanks to the data collected in the InSight mission, scientists discovered that the Red Planet doesn\u2019t have only a liquid core as it was thought. However, now we know it also has a solid core with a radius of about 613 km. This was published in the magazine Nature and it changes everything we knew about Mars\u2019 structure and history. So, let\u2019s find out more about this incredible planet.<\/p>\n

Changes in the study of Mars<\/p>\n

For years, the science community believed Mars had a completely liquid core, but new data proved there\u2019s also a solid one. This changes the way in which Mars\u2019 formation and evolution are explained, it\u2019s an open door to better understand other planetary bodies in the Solar System.<\/p>\n

The research was led by experts of the University of Science and Technology of China. They worked with data from InSight<\/a>, the NASA lander that has been operating on the Red Planet since December 2018. The lander\u2019s seismometer could detect unique signs from the inside of the planet.<\/p>\n

How was the solid core discovered?<\/p>\n

The key clue came from the seismic waves, which are similar to the ones generated on Earth during earthquakes. Scientists identified two types:<\/p>\n

PKKP waves: they travel directly through the core.
\nPKiKP waves: they bounce against something solid inside the core.<\/p>\n

The InSight seismometer registered these PKiKP between 50 and 200 seconds before expected. If Mars\u2019 core were completely liquid, these signs wouldn\u2019t have happened that way. So, this was the evidence that led scientists to conclude that the Red Planet must have a solid part in its center.<\/p>\n

Inside of Mars<\/p>\n

The analysis showed that the inside of the planet wasn\u2019t formed by layers perfectly organized as it was thought, but it was totally the opposite: irregular. Researchers say the rocks there function like \u2018\u2019fossils\u2019\u2019 that keep memory from the time when the planet was born.<\/p>\n

This changes Mars\u2019 traditional image of a simple planet when it comes to its inner structure and reveals way more complex geological history.<\/p>\n

Caution among scientists<\/p>\n

Even though data is solid, not every expert totally agrees. For example, Simon St\u00e4hler, geophysicist from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and scientific collaborator on the InSight mission, explained his point of view:<\/p>\n

He stated that \u201cthe data doesn\u2019t quite convince me.\u2019\u2019 However, he acknowledged that the team considered all possible sources of error and the results remain solid. For him, the chances of Mars having a solid core is about 30%.<\/p>\n

He even compared this finding with the debate on the possible existence of a solid core on the Moon. What\u2019s more, St\u00e4hler also explained another challenge: most of the laboratory data used on Earth doesn\u2019t exactly reproduce the extreme conditions of Mars\u2019 core. That\u2019s why these new signs could be showing physical behaviors of materials that aren\u2019t fully understood.<\/p>\n

A new look at Mars<\/p>\n

The possible discovery of a solid core on the Red Planet changes what it\u2019s known about the planet and creates new questions on how rocky planets are formed and how they evolve. If Mars has this feature, then other similar worlds could also have unexpected inner structures.<\/p>\n

For now, InSight data offers a new and surprising chapter when it comes to Mars exploration. Even though there are still doubts, this study proves how much there\u2019s still to learn about a planet that has caught human attention for centuries. Isn\u2019t it incredible how much can be discovered from a planet that has been studied so many times?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mars, that planet that has been the center of many studies, has revealed something surprising in a NASA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-147893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}