InSight almost reached Mars. What he tells us about the red planet?

"Earth and Mars were formed from very similar materials," says Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at the jet propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California, which manages the NASA mission InSight. "Why, in the end, the planet became so different? Our measurements will help us to turn the clock and to understand what led to the green Earth, but desert to Mars."

There Was a time when their resemblance was frightening: both planets were warm, wet and shrouded in thick atmospheres. But 3 or 4 billion years ago, they parted ways. Maybe soon we find out why they went their separate ways. The spacecraft NASA's InSight will arrive on the Red planet Monday, November 26, and will allow scientists to compare the Earth with its "rusty" brother.

InSight is flying to Mars

InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will not search for life on Mars. But exploring the interior of the planet — what is it made of, how a layered material and how much heat passes through it — it will help scientists to understand how the raw materials of the planet allow us to sustain life.

A long time Ago Mars had ceased to change, and the Earth continued. At the Ground there was a sort of geological conveyor, which has never been Mars: tectonic plates. When they converge, they may push the crust into the planet. When you disagree, allow the bark to go outside.

This is a grinding material not only brings to the surface a new breed. Some of the most important for life ingredients, volatile substances include water, carbon dioxide and methane. Because they are easily converted into gas, they can unleash tectonic movement.

The fact that Mars has no tectonic plates, suggests that its crust has never gone below the surface. Whether the emergence of life depend on whether the tectonic plates, carrying out volatile substances?

"One of the most important issues of the relativity of fitness for life is, what are the main conditions necessary for the formation of life on the planet?", says sue Smrekar, Deputy principal investigator at JPL InSight. "Understanding of the primordial building blocks lays the Foundation for how processes affecting the environment, evolyutsioniruet with the times."

InSight can help to find answers to these questions using a seismometer (SEIS) to consider as earthquakes — which can be caused not only by tectonic action — pass through Mars. Understanding how the planet is stratified, will help scientists go back in time and lay the shelves as dust, metals, and ICES in the early Solar system come together to form the Red planet.

Each solid planet keeps the heat in the bowels. Part of it is enclosed during the formation of the planet; the rest appears as a consequence of the gradual decay of radioactive materials. This heat gradually makes its way to the surface, aplause layers of rock, destroying the bark and causing the volcanoes which carried the volatile gases to the surface.

Heat is important for several reasons. In the early history of Mars could be born warm springs that rise from popularnosti. Could also be the eruption of volcanic vapors which are later condensed into a stream, and oceans.

By Measuring the internal temperature of Mars with a probe called Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), InSight can help to explain how the heat creates the planet's surface, making it more or less habitable over time.

Heat maintains the molten core of the planet and the current one. The metal elements in the core generate electric currents in motion, creating a magnetic field. This magnetic field is like an invisible armor protecting the planet and any life forms that may be on it from the radiation.

Once upon a time Mars was a very strong magnetic field; many of the ancient parts of the crust of the planet is strongly magnetized. But billions of years ago, this field has virtually evaporated, leaving Mars without protection.

To better understand why Mars ' magnetic field disappeared, InSight scientists want to learn more about the core of the planet. The presence of liquid, solid or hybrid kernel will detect the rocking motion of the planet on its axis, like a whirligig rocking during spinning or raw egg.

Radioexpedition RISE (Rotation and Structure of the Experiment) InSight will help scientists to measure variations of Mars. In combination with information about the layers and the warmth of the planet, these insights will allow us to understand how Mars has lost its magnetic field.

The Wobble of Mars, tectonic activity, and heat flow — these three points will help us to know why our planetary neighbor chose a different path.

"Mars is a laboratory in which all these processes occurred in the early stage of planet formation," says Smrekar. "InSight will help to Refine our model of change of the planet over time."

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