Mars's Interior is 400°C Hotter Under Southern Hemisphere

1:26 AM ETDeveloping

Science Desk

The researchers noted that the much thicker southern hemisphere could have resulted in its interior heat becoming insulated from cooling that the rest of the planet’s interior experienced billions of years ago, meaning this heat being observed could have been maintained for the last several billion years.

This exciting finding builds on past findings from the now-retired NASA InSight lander that discovered seismic waves that passed through the southern hemisphere’s interior dissipated quicker than seismic waves passing through the northern hemisphere’s interior.

In the end, the researchers found that the southern hemisphere of Mars has an interior temperature difference of about 200-400 degrees Celsius (392-752 degrees Fahrenheit) greater compared to the northern hemisphere’s interior.

Now, an international team of scientists might have shed new light on the present-day interior heat of Mars, as they presented new findings recently published in Nature that could show the interior heat of Mars might not be evenly distributed.

"Scientists usually assume that the interiors of planetary bodies are generally spherically symmetric, but this is not necessarily true," said Dr. Alexander Berne , who is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Arizona who conducted the research as a PhD student at Caltech, and is lead author of the study.

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Now, an international team of scientists might have shed new light on the present-day interior heat of Mars, as they presented new findings recently published in Nature that could show the interior heat of Mars might…
In the end, the researchers found that the southern hemisphere of Mars has an interior temperature difference of about 200-400 degrees Celsius (392-752 degrees Fahrenheit) greater compared to the northern…
This exciting finding builds on past findings from the now-retired NASA InSight lander that discovered seismic waves that passed through the southern hemisphere’s interior dissipated quicker than seismic waves…
"Scientists usually assume that the interiors of planetary bodies are generally spherically symmetric, but this is not necessarily true," said Dr. Alexander Berne , who is a postdoctoral associate at the University…
The researchers noted that the much thicker southern hemisphere could have resulted in its interior heat becoming insulated from cooling that the rest of the planet’s interior experienced billions of years ago,…

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