Scientists discover a massive heat anomaly deep inside Mars

Mars has a hidden temperature divide, with its southern interior potentially hundreds of degrees hotter than the north and partially molten. The discovery could help explain several long-standing Martian mysteries, including unusual magnetism, seismic behavior, and clues to the planet’s ancient water history. Scientists discover a massive heat anomaly deep inside Mars.

Gravity measurements suggest that the interior beneath Mars’s southern hemisphere is about 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the north and may be partially molten. The finding offers a new window into the Red Planet’s geologic history, including periods when Mars may have had environments capable of supporting life. The study was led by Caltech alumnus Alexander Berne (PhD ’26), now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Arizona.

The results were published August 27 in Nature. Mapping Mars From Gravity While completing his graduate work at Caltech, Berne developed a model that uses subtle variations in gravity to estimate the internal structure of a planetary body. He and his colleagues later applied that approach to Mars.