Marsquakes Reveal Detailed Look at Red Planet’s Interior

Marsquakes Reveal Detailed Look at Red Planet’s Interior
Clouds drift over the dome-covered SEIS seismometer of the InSight lander on the surface of Mars, in this undated photo made available on July 22, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A quake-measuring device on Mars is providing the first detailed look at the red planet’s interior, revealing a surprisingly thin crust and a hot molten core beneath the frigid surface.

In a series of articles published Thursday, scientists reported that the Martian crust is within the thickness range of Earth’s. The Martian mantle between the crust and core is roughly half as thick as Earth’s. And the Martian core is on the high side of what scientists anticipated, although smaller than the core of our own nearly twice-as-big planet.