2023-08-11 14:45:56
Unlike Earth, which is taking longer and longer to complete one revolution, Mars’ rotation is accelerating, a data analysis has determined.
These data were sent at the time by NASA’s InSight probe, which landed on Mars in 2018 and studied it until 2022.
With the available data, Sebastien Le Maistre’s team from the Royal Observatory of Belgium have made the most precise measurements to date of the rotation of Mars, detecting for the first time how the planet wobbles due to the “splashing” of its core. molten metal.
To track the planet’s rate of spin, the study authors relied on one of InSight’s instruments: a radio transponder and antennae collectively called RISE (Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment).
The authors of the study have found that the planet’s rotation is accelerating in a way that each year makes the planet take a fraction of a thousandth of a second less to complete one revolution on itself.
The cause of this acceleration is not clear.
Marte. (Foto: NASA JPL / Caltech / USGS)
The study is titled “Spin state and deep interior structure of Mars from InSight radio tracking”, and has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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