Sentences with phrase «dense iron core»

At the end of its life, having exhausted its fuel and left with a dense iron core, the star collapses and sheds its outer layers, leaving behind a dense neutron star in its wake.

Peridotite, which glows like a green cat's eye, is one of the most common minerals in the mantle, the slushy zone between Earth's stiff crust and dense iron core.

Its dense iron core takes up 42 per cent of its volume, its orbit is less circular than that of the other planets, and current planetary formation models predict Mercury should be closer to the sun and bigger, so we know we're missing something.

Not exact matches

Molten iron, being about twice as dense as the surrounding mantle, would propagate the crack downward, all the way to the core.

But if lighter material, like hydrogen, settles close to the iron core, it could block dense material from sinking deep enough to keep convection going, said O'Rourke, of Arizona State University in Tempe.

By the time the mission is completed, scientists hope to get answers on why Mercury is so dense and understand its geological history, the structure of its iron - rich core and other issues.

It has long been thought that heat flow drives what is called thermal convection — the hottest liquid becomes less dense and rises, as the cooler, more - dense liquid sinks — in Earth's liquid iron core and generates Earth's magnetic field.

The exact thickness of that layer is unknown, but as it gradually cools, it should form solid chunks that sink like iron snow into the denser, solid inner core, also of unknown size, says geophysicist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, the mission's principal investigator.

If the core is made out of less - dense material such as a mixture of sulfur and iron, the maximum radius would probably be less than 2000 kilometers.

If the Martian core is dense (composed of iron) similar to Earth's or SNC meteorites thought to originate from Mars, then the minimum core radius would be about 1300 kilometers.

The planet's mass and diameter are consistent with the hypothesis that it has a low average density due to an inferred composition of three - fourths water (possibly 47 percent) and other ices (that have subliminated into a «supercritical fluid» above an «electronically conductive,» dense fluid plasma below a steamy atmosphere) and one - fourth rock and iron in the core.

The heat of its formation caused extensive melting of the planet, leading Earth to separate into two layers when the denser iron metal sank inward toward the center, creating the core and leaving the silicate - rich mantle floating above.

This means the planet is far denser, indicating it is a rocky planet with an iron core.

It's a little denser than Earth, suggesting an iron core, and it's about the same size and receives a similar amount of radiation from its parent star as we do from the Sun.