Homework Help: astronomy

Posted by o_O rion on Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 2:54am.

Mars has a mean density less than the mean density of the Earth's mantle. How is it possible
that Mars could have a metallic core given this fact? Hint: No calculations are required.
Compare the densities used in part a) with the density of mantle rocks like basalt at one
terrestrial atmospheric pressure.

A metallic core implies having much mass, right? Then the mantle of mars must be really really light for mars to be less dense than even earth's mantle. But how do i show it by comparing density of basalt? As mentioned in the question, i have already determined densities of earth's mantle and core (and also earth's mean density) in another part of the question.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

astronomy - SraJMcGin, Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 9:56am
You might begin here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=why+Mars+has+a+mean+density+less+than+that+of+Earth%27s+mantle&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Sra

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