Red Planet's Insides Viewed Thanks To New Gravity Map

(Photo : Getty Images )

A new map of the Red Planet reveals some intricate features about its interior. It is the most detailed map to date, with three NASA spacecraft responsible for its conception.

The map allows scientists to see the inside of the planet, especially the areas with higher or lower levels of gravity, in comparison to the rest of the planet.

"Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient," said Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts. "The new gravity map will be helpful for future Mars exploration, because better knowledge of the planet's gravity anomalies helps mission controllers insert spacecraft more precisely into orbit about Mars. Furthermore, the improved resolution of our gravity map will help us understand the still-mysterious formation of specific regions of the planet."

Thanks to the details in the new the gravity map, scientists are better able to understand how the northern lowlands were able to separate from the southern highlands littered with craters.

By analyzing the tides in the Martian crust and mantle caused by the gravitational pull of the planet's sun and moons, the scientists also learned that Mars has a liquid outer core made of molten rock.

"With this new map, we've been able to see gravity anomalies as small as about 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) across, and we've determined the crustal thickness of Mars with a resolution of around 120 kilometers (almost 75 miles)," said Genova. "The better resolution of the new map helps interpret how the crust of the planet changed over Mars' history in many regions."

According to Phys, before the new device, scientists used MGS and ODY missions to measure the planet's polar ice caps.