What are the mysterious magnetic pulses detected on Mars?

The strange pulsations that occur at midnight have gotten the scientists scratching their heads

Mars is the only planet that has been studied in so much detail apart from Earth. Now a new discovery may nullify all the previously held notions that the red planet does not have a magnetic field. Mars Global Surveyor in 1997 came to the conclusion that the red planet once had a magnetic field similar to the one we have around our planet.

There are a couple of leading theories regarding what vaporized the planet’s magnetic field. The first one suggests that huge asteroids continued to bombard Mars until its magnetic field was shut down. Or one massive asteroid, like the one that wiped out Dinosaurs from our planet, might have walloped the planet’s magnetism in one catastrophic collision.

The second theory speculates that the magnetic filed only covered one hemisphere of the red planet, which might explain its eventual weakening overtime before turning off. As the outer core of Mars seized up causing the collapse of the magnetic field some 4 billion years ago, relentless radiation from the sun fried its atmosphere and turned a potentially life-supporting habitat into a cold desolate place as it is today.

While these popular theories have so far been considered plausible reasons for the non-existence of the magnetic field on Mars, early findings from NASA’s robotic geophysicist, the InSight lander has stunned the scientists. The lander has been gathering intel on the evolution of our planetary neighbor since its landing on the surface in November 2018.

InSight’s magnetometer, which has been placed on the surface to give scientists their best look yet at the crustal magnetic field has given them a surprise as well. The magnetic field’s strength near the surface turned out to be 20 times stronger than previously predicted.

Even more intriguing was the fact that this magnetic field was changing strength & direction. This wobbling is known as a magnetic pulsation. These pulsations are common on Earth & Mars, as they can be caused by upper atmospheric chaos, solar winds, and kinks in the planets’ magnetic bubbles. But what’s odd is that they happen precisely at midnight local time as reported by the InSight science team.

What makes it even more peculiar is the fact that the only magnetic pulsations that we see here on Earth occur at higher altitudes and they are associated with Northern Lights. The ones on Mars apparently have no clear source but scientists have a hypothesis.

The weak magnetic bubble of Mars, which is created as a result of the solar winds interacting with its thin atmosphere, is compressed by the solar wind’s magnetic field causing it to take a tail-like shape. This tail may be aligned with InSight lander at midnight and plucks the surface magnetic field like a guitar string. This can be verified by an orbiter in the swinging above the lander at the right time… until then, however, this remains a mystery.

InSight also detected a strange electrically conductive layer that’s deep below the Martian surface. The team can’t confirm the depth but they think it wouldn’t be deeper than 62 miles (100 km). Considering the fact, there is evidence of surface ice on Mars, this could point to a reservoir of water.

The only problem is that the InSight lander drill can only dig down to about 16 feet below the surface, so scientists will need to find another way to confirm this. It would be interesting to see if these theories can be verified eventually. For now, the robotic lander continues to dig up troves of valuable information from beneath the Martian’s surface.