Slashdot Mirror


Earth's Core Far Hotter Than Thought

hessian writes "New measurements suggest the Earth's inner core is far hotter than prior experiments suggested, putting it at 6,000C — as hot as the Sun's surface. The solid iron core is actually crystalline, surrounded by liquid. But the temperature at which that crystal can form had been a subject of long-running debate. Experiments outlined in Science used X-rays to probe tiny samples of iron at extraordinary pressures to examine how the iron crystals form and melt."

6 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh noes! by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's kinda like racist jokes:

    They can actually be really funny, but when you realize that the person telling the joke legitimately doesn't like black people, it creates a depressing side to the joke that ruins any humor.

  2. Re:Far hotter? by steelyeyedmissileman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Semantics, yes, but you can't grade "hotness" on either the Fahrenheit or Celsius scales by a percentage; otherwise 1 degree is infinitely "hotter" than 0 degrees!

    To be fair, in Kelvin this is a 19% increase, so the semantic difference seems irrelevant. To put it in perspective, though, a 20% increase from room temperature (25 C or 298 K) would be 85 C (358 K); I'm pretty sure you'd agree that's "far" hotter!

  3. Re:Oh noes! by DougOtto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So a "racist joke" has to automatically be about "black people?" Who's the racist now?

    --
    Solving Unix problems since 1989...
  4. Re:Oh noes! by shentino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Historically blacks have in fact been the most notoriously discriminated against race, so it's a good example.

  5. Re:Oh noes! by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's be fair, my phrasing was ambiguous. There is a viable reading of what I posted that makes it look like I was implying what he said I was. I wasn't, but it is my fault for being insufficiently clear that I meant it as an example, not a universal assertion.

  6. Re:Oh noes! by sconeu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I always thought that was radical feminists.

    "How many radical feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?"

    "THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.