September 3, 2025 — A team of planetary scientists has uncovered dozens of unusual, dense structures buried inside Mars, which may be remnants of ancient protoplanets that collided with the Red Planet billions of years ago.
Ancient Planetary Fragments Preserved
The discovery was made possible by seismic data collected from NASA’s InSight lander. Researchers found that certain Marsquake waves slowed down as they passed through deep sections of the mantle, pointing to hidden anomalies—dense “blobs” that could be fragments of early planetary bodies.
These structures are believed to date back around 4.5 billion years, when Mars endured massive collisions during the chaotic early years of the solar system. Unlike Earth, which constantly recycles its interior through plate tectonics, Mars has a stagnant outer shell that has preserved these ancient features untouched for eons.
A Planetary Time Capsule
Scientists describe the Martian mantle as a kind of geological archive, storing evidence of violent planetary formation processes that Earth’s active geology has long erased. The preserved blobs may offer insights into how rocky planets like Earth, Venus, and Mars were built from collisions of smaller worlds.
Why It Matters
The discovery not only reshapes our understanding of Mars’ interior but also provides rare clues to the violent history of the solar system. Mars, it seems, may hold some of the most pristine evidence of how planets form, fail, and evolve.
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