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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Technology:

Earth’s Core is Much Hotter Than Scientists Thought (Discover Magazine)

(Courtesy of ESRF)
Scientists have a new window into the Earth’s core and how it behaves with research that shows the iron at the inner heart of the planet is heated to about 6,000 degrees Celsius—1,000 degrees hotter than previously estimated.

For two decades, scientists have debated the details of the core’s temperature. Knowing its temperature is key to understanding the Earth’s internal processes, particularly its magnetic field and its geothermal activity.

Now a research team, led by Simone Anzellini of the French national technological research organization CEA, has built an experiment that moved this elusive subject into the lab, re-creating the conditions at the center of the Earth.

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