"The importance of the far side impact was to produce seismic waves that traversed the deep interior of the planet, including the core. Previously, we had not observed any seismic waves that had transited the core. Unlike Mars, Earth has no molten layer around its core. One of the two studies published on Wednesday indicates this layer is fully molten, with the other indicating that most of it is fully molten, with the top portion partially molten. "We have learned a lot about Mars by studying the unique seismic record provided by the InSight mission," Samuel said.

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Persons: Amir Khan, Henri Samuel, Khan, Samuel, Will Dunham, Daniel Wallis Organizations: NASA, JPL, Caltech, Handout, REUTERS, Rights, Tempe Terra, ETH, CNRS, Institut, Physique, Globe, Thomson Locations: Mars, Tempe, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, Paris