core

The moon: Magnetic field may have been disrupted by huge sinking rocks

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There’s a new explanation for the moon’s former magnetic field, and it involves 60-kilometre-wide slabs of rock sinking through the lunar mantle Space 13 January 2022 By Matthew Sparkes The moon once had a relatively strong magnetic field NASA Moon rocks collected by the Apollo missions sparked a mystery because they showed signs of having formed … Read more

Weird structures near Earth’s core may be scars from a primordial interplanetary collision

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A group of mysterious, ultradense structures just outside Earth’s core may be the remnants of an ancient interplanetary collision, new research suggests. These strange structures are known as ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZs), because seismic waves generated by earthquakes travel about 50% more slowly through these zones than through the surrounding mantle. That means the ULVZs are … Read more

Exoplanets: Extremely dense world with an enormous iron core has an 8-hour year

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By Leah Crane The exoplanet GJ 367b orbits its star in an extremely short time SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein) An extraordinarily dense exoplanet seemingly made mostly of iron has joined a group called the ultrashort-period planets that orbit so close to their stars that their years are less than one Earth day long. Kristine Lam, … Read more