Sentences with phrase «liquid iron core»

A liquid iron core generates a magnetic field which deflects high energy radiation.

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.

Now NASA's Messenger spacecraft has revealed that the planet's liquid iron core has been generating a magnetic field for the past 3.8 billion years.

Earth's magnetic field is generated in its liquid iron core, and this «geodynamo» requires a regular release of heat from the planet to operate.

Below the ice, scientists predict there's a layer of magnesium silicate perovskite (minerals also found in Earth's mantle) and then a liquid iron core.

Not exact matches

The planetary architecture that provides Earth's sheltering field has been broadly understood for several decades now: a solid - iron inner core roughly the size of the moon, surrounded by a 1,400 - mile - thick outer core of liquid iron and nickel, with 1,800 miles of solid mantle above, topped by a crust of slowly drifting tectonic plates.

Two years ago, a team of scientists from two British universities discovered that liquid iron, at the temperatures and pressures found in the outer core, conducts far more heat into the mantle than anyone had thought possible.

The discovery is vexing: If liquid iron conducts heat into the mantle at such a high rate, there wouldn't be enough heat left in the outer core to churn its ocean of liquid iron.

Alfè and his colleagues used supercomputers to carry out a «first principles» calculation of heat flow in liquid iron at Earth's core.

The first hint that Earth actually had a solid iron core beneath a liquid layer came in 1929, after a magnitude - 7.8 earthquake shook New Zealand.

The researchers show that this effect could continuously stimulate the motion of the liquid iron alloy making up the outer core, and in return generate Earth's magnetic field.

Sitting on top of the liquid outer core, it may sink slightly, disturbing the flow of iron and ultimately affecting Earth's magnetic field.

This shield is produced by the geodynamo, the rapid motion of huge quantities of liquid iron alloy in the Earth's outer core.

This mechanical forcing applied to the whole planet causes strong currents in the outer core, which is made up of a liquid iron alloy of very low viscosity.

The magnetic field is generated by swirling, liquid iron in Earth's outer core.

The Outer Core Made of molten iron, nickel, and other ingredients yet to be determined, the churning liquid outer core may have the viscosity of water, streaming at possibly one to several miles per week with the turbulence of a gargantuan, slow - moving washing machCore Made of molten iron, nickel, and other ingredients yet to be determined, the churning liquid outer core may have the viscosity of water, streaming at possibly one to several miles per week with the turbulence of a gargantuan, slow - moving washing machcore may have the viscosity of water, streaming at possibly one to several miles per week with the turbulence of a gargantuan, slow - moving washing machine.

The Earth's core consists mainly of a sphere of liquid iron at temperatures above 4000 degrees and pressures of more than 1.3 million atmospheres.

The Earth's magnetic field is generated by the flow of liquid iron, an electrical conductor, in the Earth's outer core, between 3000 and 5000 kilometres beneath the surface.

The sun spews energetic particles that can pry life - sustaining molecules from our atmosphere, but Earth's magnetic shield, which originates from the planet's hot core of churning, liquid iron, shoos those particles away.

Below the mantle is the outer core, composed of liquid, molten iron and nickel, which envelopes an inner core of solid iron at the center of the planet.

Mercury's peculiar magnetic field provides evidence that iron turns from a liquid to a solid at the core's outer boundary, say the scientists, whose research currently appears online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and will be published in an upcoming print edition.

Within Earth's core, iron turns from a liquid to a solid at the inner boundary of the planet's liquid outer core; this results in a solid inner part and liquid outer part.

«If the core is made of iron, Mars will wobble one way; if it's liquid, it will wobble a different way.»

To mimic conditions at Earth's Core, scientists cranked up the heat and pressure, then used synchrotron X-rays to gauge when iron turned from solid to liquid.

And they are suggesting that a scum of iron - rich mineral is now frozen around the rest of the core, which is still liquid.

Sorting through 40 - year - old records of moonquakes (red dots) has apparently revealed a liquid - iron core (yellow) and a solid - iron inner core (orange).

Scientists agree that magnetic fields form and remain due to iron flowing in the liquid core.

It is generated by the rotation of liquid iron in the core, just as happens inside Earth.

Astronomers already knew that Mercury has a magnetic field about 1 per cent the strength of Earth's, and that the rotation of liquid iron in the core generates the field, just as happens inside Earth.

It is generated by turbulent motions of liquid iron in Earth's core.

The new data should help scientists better model the movement of liquid iron in the outer core, which gives rise to Earth's magnetic field, says Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California.

It is widely accepted that the Earth's inner core formed about a billion years ago when a solid, super-hot iron nugget spontaneously began to crystallize inside a 4,200 - mile - wide ball of liquid metal at the planet's center.

We know that the planet has a partly solid, partly liquid core, composed largely of iron, surrounded by a thick, flowing mantle, topped by a thin layer of crust.

By looking in detail at the seismic record, you can deduce that Earth has a liquid outer core and a solid inner core, and that both are mostly iron.

It exists because the Earth has a hot, liquid iron rich core,» said Packham.

The core of the Earth contains an inner layer, an iron - rich solid ball, and an outer layer, of liquid iron and nickel, with a mantle of silicate.

The motion of liquid iron in the outer core is itself driven by the continuous loss of heat from the inner core.

Earth's magnetic field is thought to be generated largely by an ocean of superheated, swirling liquid iron that makes up Earth's outer core 3000 km under our feet.

A world with an iron core, rocky mantle and enough water on the surface to create liquid water oceans that could support life.

If Mercury's core material condensed from primordial matter at pressures of one atmosphere or more, iron would condense as a liquid capable of dissolving copious amounts of hydrogen.

Sears sold a cast - iron machine called the Wizard, which builders used to make their own hollow - core forms by pouring a liquid mixture into the mold, allowing it to dry, slipping them out, and making more.