CNN —Mars is rotating more quickly than it used to, according to data that NASA’s InSight lander collected on the red planet.
Initially, the InSight mission, the first to study the interior of Mars, was supposed to last about two years after it landed in November 2018.
The InSight mission continued to collect data about Mars until the very end, falling silent in December 2022 after dust blocked its solar panels from receiving sunlight.
Researchers then used RISE to measure the wobble of Mars as the core sloshes around inside it.
This new figure was compared with previous estimates of the core’s radius that were collected by tracking seismic waves as they traveled through Mars’ interior.
Persons:
CNN —, Viking landers, ”, Sebastien Le Maistre, Mars, “, Bruce Banerdt, “ I’ve
Organizations:
CNN, NASA, JPL, Caltech, Pathfinder, Space, Space Network, Royal Observatory of, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Locations:
Royal Observatory of Belgium, Pasadena , California