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Earth's Core Far Hotter Than Thought

Posted by timothy on from the might-as-well-be-walking-on-the-earth dept.

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."

26 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Oh noes! by funwithBSD · · Score: 5, Funny

    Global warming has reached the core!

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    1. Re:Oh noes! by Feyshtey · · Score: 4, Informative

      But Al Gore said it was "several million degress".... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMrxC-qEHb8 I'm so confused.

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    2. 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.

    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?

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    4. Re:Oh noes! by flibbidyfloo · · Score: 5, Funny

      He was talking in Fahrenheit degrees. I believe 6000 C is approximately equal to 2,000,000 F. At least if I remember what I learned from the American education system :)

    5. 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.

    6. Re:Oh noes! by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Q: "How many tree-huggers does it take to change a lightbulb?"

      A: "That's not funny!"

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      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    7. Re:Oh noes! by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Funny

      That core is so hot right now.

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    8. 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.

    9. Re:Oh noes! by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh man, don't say that. Someone will believe it.

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    10. Re:Oh noes! by NatasRevol · · Score: 3, Funny

      Close enough.

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    11. Re:Oh noes! by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Could you clarify? I certainly wouldn't wand some random stranger on the internet thinking poorly of me.

    12. 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!"

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      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    13. Re:Oh noes! by pclminion · · Score: 3, Funny

      In physics, being wrong by a couple orders of magnitude is no big deal. Call me back when he's off by 10^20.

  2. Trip Planning by ButtonMashingGorilla · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank goodness I saw this article. I have been planning my trip to the Inner Core, but my unobtanium suit is only rated for 5500C

  3. Far hotter? by omnichad · · Score: 5, Informative

    I may have misread, but I think this article is saying that 20% hotter is "far" hotter. Not the adjective I would use for 20%.

    1. 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!

    2. Re:Far hotter? by omnichad · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, since it's Celsius and not Kelvin, it's not a 20% absolute increase. At thousands of degrees, the difference between Celsius and Kelvin is more of a rounding error so I didn't mention it.

      5 to 6 degrees would be a 1/278th increase.

  4. only 1800F degrees by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Big deal. That's like the difference between December and July in the Midwest.

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  5. Re:That means by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just book a cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines. They offer cruises to Hell.

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  6. 5C to 6C is not +20% temperature by DragonWriter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not all "20%"'s are created equal. For instance, if the temperature outside increases from 5C to 6C

    5C to 6C is less than a 1% increase in temperature.

    (Celsius isn't a ratio scale where 0 of the quantity measured is 0 on the scale; Kelvin is -- 5C to 6C is 278K to 279K; at the range of 5000C to 6000C, the difference between C and K is small and doesn't effect ratios much, but at 5-6C that's not true.)

  7. Re:Iron vs. sulfur by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since when did Creationists ever let facts get in the way of a good myth?

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  8. Re:So is Gwyneth Paltrow by mrbester · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's because everybody tends to use the metric Helen (1k ship launching capability) instead of the more accurate Troy Helen (1.186k ships)...

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  9. Re:I call BS by dpidcoe · · Score: 3, Funny

    For all we know Earth is dirt all the way down

    Are you sure it's dirt and not turtles?

  10. Re:We are the grays. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, the core is not hot enough to sustain fusion. 6000 degrees is not enough for fusion. Not in the earth's core, not on the surface of the sun either. The sun doesn't do fusion on the surface. It does fusion deep inside, where the temperature is millions of degrees. The earth and the sun have one thing in common - both are much hotter inside than on the surface. . .

  11. Re:hardly "much hotter" by jomama717 · · Score: 3, Informative
    You're way off base here:
    1. 1. The linked article is talking about a temperature measurement made 1000 miles below the earth's surface, not the core
    2. 2. The measurement made is reported as 6,650 degrees FAHRENHEIT

    Come on mods, RTFLAs (L=linked)

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