What lies at the centre of Earth's core? Scientists answer THIS age-old question

It is often a crazy fact to wrap one's head around that we live on a planet with a solid upper layer, beneath which is a molten-liquid core, reaching thousands of degrees in temperature. However, what lies at the very centre ofEarth's solid, metallic coreis a mystery that has puzzled scientists over the years.

According to new research published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, it has been posited that our planet has a distinct ball of iron within its metallic core.

The study states that the newly-detected centre is a 644-kilometre-wide ball of metal with the composition of iron-nickel alloy.

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The fact that this ball had not been detected previously could be attributed to the simple fact that its outer layer is also composed of a similar iron-nickel alloy with trace amounts of other elements.

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With the Earth's core impossibly hot, it is difficult to reach anywhere near it. Thus, scientists use seismology to gauge what lies in the innards of our home planet.

After any earthquake seismic waves travel across the Earth, changing their path and orientation when passing through different materials. This allows the geophysicists to decipher what lies at Earth's rather mysterious core.

The scientists involved in the study used a similar process to ascertain their findings.

“In this study, for the first time, we report observations of seismic waves originating from powerful earthquakes traveling back and forth from one side of the globe to the other up to five times like a ricochet,” said Dr Thanh-Son Phạm, one of the coauthors of the study.

“Additionally, the transition from the innermost (solid) ball to the outer shell of the inner core (also solid shell) seems rather gradational than sharp, That is why we cannot observe it via direct reflections of seismic waves from it.”

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The discovery of an inner layer is expected to widen the horizon of scientists and their understanding of Earth's magnetic field and how it has evolved over centuries and will continue to do so in the coming future.

(With inputs from agencies)

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