Mars continues to rotate faster: scientists establish the reason
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Every year the speed of rotation of Mars accelerates by a small amount, but in the long run this will have a significant effect. Currently, scientists do not know why this happens, writes Science Alert with reference to research by astronomers from NASA in the journal Nature. The data for the study was obtained by the scientists from the InSight lander. It was decommissioned in December 2022, but provided valuable information. Each rotation of Mars around the Sun accelerates by about 4 milliseconds of angle. Photo: magann/Depositphotos This shortens the length of the day on Mars by just a fraction of a millisecond each Martian year. According to scientists, this process will help them unravel the evolution of the red planet. Previously, scientists hypothesized that the acceleration is due to the accumulation of material on the polar ice caps and internal dynamics. The InSight module records contain data on the composition of Mars’ liquid core and current geodynamic activity. Based on 900 Martian days, the team found a tiny speedup. They claim that this is due to the redistribution of the mass of Mars. On Earth, the reverse process takes place – our planet slows down due to the Moon, which redistributes the Earth’s mass, dragging the oceans with it. Since there is nothing like it on Mars, scientists will conduct an in-depth analysis to find out why. In addition, Mars has a large core radius – about 1,800 km, that is, it reaches almost half of the planetary radius (3,400 km). The density of a yard of the red planet is also high – about 6.3 g/cm3. But this mass is not distributed evenly, scientists note based on data on seismic activity on Mars. It will be recalled that scientists recently managed to take a photo of Mars in ultraviolet light. And on its surface, the rover found a stone, similar to a donut. Read also: NASA’s Mars rover has sent new evidence of the existence of organic molecules on the red planet
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