How did Earth avoid a Mars-like fate? Ancient rocks hold clues

Approximately 1,800 miles beneath our feet, swirling liquid iron in the Earth's outer core generates our planet's protective magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is vital for life on Earth's surface because ...

Apollo-era lunar seismic data yields new lunar core model

(Phys.org)—Like the solar system's telluric planets, including Earth itself, the moon's internal structure is composed of geoochemically distinct mantle, crust and core layers. The core is mostly iron; much of our understanding ...

The age of the Earth's inner core revised

By creating conditions akin to the center of the Earth inside a laboratory chamber, researchers have improved the estimate of the age of our planet's solid inner core, putting it at 1 billion to 1.3 billion years old.

Probing the possibility of life on super-Earths

Along with its aesthetic function of helping create the glorious Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, the powerful magnetic field surrounding our planet has a fairly important practical value as well: It makes life possible.

page 1 from 2