US Edition'Marsquakes' Indicate a Solid Core for the Red Planet, Just Like Earth
Mars has a solid inner core about one-fifth its radius, similar in proportion to Earth's, surrounded by a larger liquid outer core, based on seismic data from NASA's InSight lander.
- On Wednesday, Huixing Bi and a Chinese-led team reported Mars has a solid inner core about one-fifth its radius, based on more than 1,300 marsquakes from NASA's InSight lander, published in Nature.
- Simon Stähler's 2021 analysis previously concluded a fully liquid Martian core, while earlier InSight mission studies left internal layering unresolved, prompting Henri Samuel and others to revise models and fuel ongoing debate.
- Seismic analysis constrained the inner-core radius to roughly 380 miles for the Martian inner core, while the liquid outer core extends up to 1,800 kilometers, Huixing Bi and colleagues found.
- These results bear directly on questions about Mars' magnetic field and atmosphere, as core solidification may explain the planet's lost magnetic field and ancient atmosphere billions of years ago.
- Researchers caution that more data are required and recommend deploying an InSight-like seismometer network and conducting detailed modelling to resolve Mars' inner core shape amid competing analyses by Simon Stähler and co-authors.
28 Articles
28 Articles
Mars has a solid core, resolving a longstanding planetary mystery, according to new study
Scientists have discovered that Mars has an interior structure similar to Earth's. Results from NASA's InSight mission suggest that the red planet has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core, potentially resolving a longstanding mystery.
Researchers want to have discovered evidence that our neighboring planet in the center is not liquid as assumed, but solid as the Earth. But then why did it lose its magnetic field?
Discovera was made by a syno-American group with InSight probe data
Marsquakes indicate a solid core for the red planet, just like Earth - WXXV News 25
By MARCIA DUNN Updated 10:02 AM CDT, September 3, 2025 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists revealed Wednesday that Mars’ innermost core appears to be a solid hunk of metal just like Earth’s. The Chinese-led research team based their findings on seismic readings from NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, which recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down in 2022. The spacecraft landed on a broad plain near Mars’ equator in 2018. Previou…
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