NASA Says that A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red 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.
" Genova, who is affiliated with MIT but is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the lead author of a paper on this research published online March 5 in the journal Icarus.
The clear picture of the new map suggests new ways on how some materials were created along the boundary that separates the smooth northern regions and the cratered southern areas.
Experts were able to establish the presence of a liquid outer core of molten rock in Mars by studying the tidal movements in the crust and mantle due to the gravitational pull of the sun and Red Planet's two moons.
From 11 years of observing Mars' gravity, experts were able to ascertain the huge amounts of carbon dioxide that freeze out of the atmosphere and onto the polar ice cap of the planet during winter. They were also able to note the movement of that mass in the North and South Pole when the climate changes.
