Planet-sized solid metal ball ‘found’ at the centre of the Earth…& 400 mile-wide ‘innermost core’ could be KEY to life
SCIENTISTS have found a humongous planet-sized solid metal ball at the Earth’s centre that could be the key to life.
The distinct fifth layer of our planet could help experts understand how life can survive on Earth and other planets.
A pair of seismologists at the Australian National University made the marvellous discovery – and documented the latest evidence of the new layer inside of the Earth.
The study, led by Thanh-Son Pham and Hrvoje Tkalčić, claims the solid metal ball is 400-miles wide – and is made of iron-nickel alloy.
Situated at the centre of what we know as the Earth’s inner core, it helps generate the Earth’s geomagnetic field, which protects the planet from deadly cosmic rays – key to sustaining life on the planet.
“The latent heat released from solidifying the Earth’s inner core drives the convection in the liquid outer core, generating Earth’s geomagnetic field,” Pham said.
“Life on Earth is protected from harmful cosmic rays and would not be possible without such a magnetic field.”
The study also claims that the metallic ball has a different crystal structure that causes shock waves from earthquakes to rumble through the layer at different speeds than the surrounding core.
“Clearly, the innermost inner core has something different from the outer layer,” the pair concluded.
“We think that the way the atoms are [packed] in these two regions is slightly different.”
The metallic ball is apparently a result of a huge geological event, likely a tectonic shift, that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago.
It measures roughly the size of Pluto and a bit smaller than the moon,’ according to Tkalčić, co-author of the study.
In 1936, Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann for the first time discovered the Earth’s inner core which is located some 4,000 miles beneath its surface.
However, 20 years ago scientists proposed the existence of a fifth layer inside the inner core of the Earth.
Pham said while the existence of the innermost inner core was strengthened by new data over time, his new study takes it even further.
He said: “The breakthrough in this study is that we find a new way to sample the very centre of the Earth’s inner core.
“[The team] has even more evidence to prove the innermost inner core actually exists.”
Pham and his team of researchers studied many earthquakes and monitored “seismic waves reverberating through the entire planet” which helped to conclude the discovery.
They found that waves passing through the innermost inner core slowed down when approaching the equator.
And the waves also slowed down when passing through the outer inner core along the equator.
Learning more about the inner core in turn can help teach us more about how other planets might or might not be habitable
John Tarduno
The expert explained that the seismic waves caused by earthquakes can oscillate back and forth from one side of the Earth – and they travel at different speeds through Earth’s different layers depending on its density, temperature and composition.
“We analysed digital records of ground motion, known as seismograms, from large earthquakes in the last decade,” Pham said while explaining how the new layer was discovered.
“Our study becomes possible thanks to the unprecedented expansion of the global seismic networks, particularly the dense networks in the contiguous US, the Alaskan peninsula and over the European Alps.”
John Tarduno, a Geophysicist who was not a part of the discovery, said the new data makes a strong case that a distinct innermost layer of Earth exists with a “different structure from the outermost inner core”.
He said learning about its origins can help us understand more about how life can survive on Earth and other planets.
“The formation of the inner core was extremely important for creating a long-term habitable planet because the inner core powered the magnetic field, that powered magnetic shielding.”
“Learning more about the inner core in turn can help teach us more about how other planets might or might not be habitable.”