NASA Finds Evidence That Mars Devoured Huge Chunks of Other Planets

The Red Planet has a bloody history.

Newly examined data from NASA's retired InSight lander suggest that there may be giant chunks of rocky material deep inside the mantle of Mars, which were lodged there after a barrage of massive objects slammed into its surface some 4.5 billion years ago.

Some of these smithereens are so large, the researchers say, that they're effectively protoplanets — moon-sized objects in the early stages of becoming a planet proper. In other words: Mars could be stuffed with the dead embryos of failed worlds.

The work, published as a new study in the journal Science, reveals a picture of the Martian interior that astronomers say is unprecedented for any planet, including our own.

"We've never seen the inside of a planet in such fine detail and clarity before,"