- Scientists studying the age of the Earth’s core have found that it is probably much younger than some estimates have suggested.
- Experimenting with iron under extreme conditions allowed scientists to better understand the forces that shape the inner and outer nuclei.
- Based on the data, the team believes the core is as young as 1 billion years old.
We do not see it as we go on with our daily lives, but the core of the earth is always at work to keep our lives and comfort on our home planet. The nucleus is responsible for the magnetic field of our planet that protects us from some of the dangers of space, transmits charged particles from the Sun and protects our atmosphere. It’s an incredibly important feature of our planet, so it makes sense that scientists would like to know how old it is.
In a new paper published in the American Physical Society’s Physical assessment letters, researchers explain that, after experimenting with recreating the conditions of the nucleus for years, they believe that the Earth’s nucleus is much younger than previously thought. They now say that the nucleus is probably somewhere between 1 billion and 1.3 billion years old.
The core of the earth is mostly made of iron. That iron stands deep in the earth under intense pressure, and the core is split into two regions: the inner core and the outer core. It is the outer core, which is fluid, that scientists believe is responsible for much of the geomagnetism of our planet.
So, what do scientists do when they have to test iron under extreme pressure? They heat it to extreme temperatures with a laser and then strike it between two diamond anvils. It sounds like a lot of fun, but it took years before the experiments returned enough data to make a clear guess about the life of our planet.
“We have encountered many problems and failed several times, which made us frustrated, and we almost gave up,” Youjun Zhang, co-author of the study, said in a statement. “With the constructive remarks and encouragement by Professor Jung-Fu Lin, we have finally worked it out after several trial runs.”
What the team ultimately found was that the conductivity of the material was significantly less than previous estimates. This suggests that the “geodynamo” – the current of the outer core – is made possible by a combination of thermal convection and compositional convection. This is important because it gives researchers data on how long it has taken the inner core to solidify.
Based on all the data they have at this point, the researchers place their estimate at the extreme lower end of the spectrum (1 billion to 1.3 billion years), while estimates from the past have suggested that the core is so old can be more than 4 billion years old, Understanding the forces that shape our planet and why we can sustain its existence here are of course very important and can help us to better understand how life can be possible on other worlds.
Mike Wehner has reported over the past decades on technology and video games, on curiosities and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and future tech. Most of the time, Mike served as Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and was featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other web and print stores. His love of reporting is second only to his gaming addiction.
.
