Insight revealed that Mars is seismically active (Frederic J. Brown / AFP)
reported US Air Force and Space Administration (NASA)Thursday, that the Insight spacecraft, which is on the roof of Mars From 2018, it will run out and stop working within 4 to 8 weeks, as scientists describe the details of what they spotted during its four-year mission.
Dust is accumulating on the solar panels that power the spacecraft and the situation is exacerbated by a dust storm, which is draining the batteries, said Bruce Banerdt, planetary physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and principal investigator on the Insight mission. a newsletter.
The InSight mission, which helped reveal Mars’ internal structure and seismic activity, was supposed to last two years but has been extended to four. Bannerdt explained that when the current runs out, NASA will lose contact with the spacecraft.
He added, in statements to Reuters, “Insight has been successful beyond my expectations. We have determined the thickness of the crust, the size and density of the inner core, and the details of the structure of the outer surface. For the first time, we have a map. complete and detailed interior of another planet, other than the Earth and the Moon “.
Insight also revealed that Mars is seismically active, having detected 1,318 earthquakes.
Two articles published in the journal Science detail the meteorite hits on Mars that were discovered by InSight in September and December last year. The seismic waves, generated by the strikes, have revealed new details on the structure of the crust of Mars and on the outer layer of the planet.
Among the objects of particular interest was a space rock, between five and 12 meters in diameter, which crashed on December 24 in an area called Amazonis Planetia, where it dug a hole 150 meters wide and 21 meters deep.
Similar massive objects enter the Earth’s atmosphere about once a year, but generally burn in our planet’s dense atmosphere.
(Reuters)
