Project description
Probing the Red Planet’s magnetic field activity
The deep interior of a planet carries information regarding its formation and evolution. Investigating these parameters is the goal of the ongoing InSight mission – NASA’s robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of Mars. Amongst the cutting-edge science tools is the magnetometer, which detects magnetic signals. The EU-funded MarsMag project will study the Martian magnetic data measured by InSight to probe the electrical conductivity structure of the Red Planet. Using powerful techniques such as electromagnetic sounding, the project is expected to reveal more about the planet’s mineralogy, temperature and volatile element content. Furthermore, it will help shed light on other important questions such as presence of crustal water, which has implications for the habitability of extraterrestrial bodies.
Objective
Magnetic sounding is a powerful tool to explore the interior structure of a planetary body because electrical conductivity carries information on mineralogy, temperature and volatile content. We propose to apply this to Mars and thus shed light on important questions such as crustal water and therefore habitability of extraterrestrial bodies.
Magnetic sounding relies on the principle that external fields induce currents in the subsurface. These induced responses provide information on subsurface electrical conductivity structure and can be measured from orbit and on the ground. While a range of techniques have mainly been developed for terrestrial investigations, this field of study has mostly been unexplored for other planets. Here, the magnetic field environment dictates the nature and geometry of the inducing external fields, and often times limited data sets pose new challenges. We plan to fully exploit martian data sets from orbit and on the ground to (1) characterize the magnetic field environment of Mars and (2) explore the electrical conductivity structure within the planet. This project will also pave the way for applying magnetic sounding methodologies to other terrestrial bodies, including Merurcy or the Moon.
The deep interior of a planet or moon carries information on its formation and evolution and contributes to the goals of ongoing planetary missions such as the InSight mission to Mars. InSight, the first surface mission equipped with a magnetometer landed on Mars last fall and the host professor and the candidate are involved as Co-PI on the seismometer team and as science investigator on the magnetometer team, respectively. This Fellowship will therefore contribute and further consolidate ETH involvement with InSight. Finally, Martian seismic activity thus far seems to originate mainly in the crust and complementary investigations using magnetic sounding will improve our understanding of crust and mantle structure and its relations to marsquakes.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanets
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologyseismology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesnatural satellites
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologymineralogy
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
8092 Zuerich
Switzerland