\"It's very exciting and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!\"Innermost Core<\/p>\n
In school, you probably learned that our planet is made up of four distinct layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core.<\/p>\n
But new research by a team of scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) is shaking up the game: like a Russian doll, they say, the inner core has yet another core hidden inside of it.<\/p>\n
This innermost inner core may have been caused by a dramatic event early in Earths history.<\/p>\n
We found evidence that may indicate a change in the structure of iron, which suggests perhaps two separate cooling events in Earths history, Joanne Stephenson, PhD researcher at ANU, and lead author of a paper about the research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The details of this big event are still a bit of a mystery, but weve added another piece of the puzzle when it comes to our knowledge of the Earths inner core, she added.<\/p>\n
The work builds on an older theory.<\/p>\n
The idea of another distinct layer was proposed a couple of decades ago, but the data has been very unclear, Stephenson argued. We got around this by using a very clever search algorithm to trawl through thousands of the models of the inner core.<\/p>\n
Previous research indicates that this innermost inner core appears to take up half the diameter of the overall inner core and has iron crystals pointing in an east-to-west direction, as opposed to the outer, inner core, which has the crystals pointing north-to-south, puzzling scientists.<\/p>\n
The new research could have some significant implications.<\/p>\n
Its very exciting and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks! Stephenson said.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Scientists dig deep to reveal Earths hidden layer [ANU]<\/p>\n
More on the Earths core: The Earths Core Is Leaking, Baffling Scientists<\/p>\n
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Continued here: \"It's very exciting and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!\"Innermost Core In school, you probably learned that our planet is made up of four distinct layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. Continue reading
\nScientists: There's Something Lurking in the Center of Earth's Core - Futurism<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"