Scientists find solid metal ball inside Earth’s core

As part of a recent study, researchers found out that there is a solid metal ball in the heart of Earth’s innermost core.

Science might not have been your strong subject in school, but surely you know about the composition of our home planet by now, right?

Not really.

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The conventional understanding of Earth’s various layers has always included four layers – the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core.

Likewise, the existence of these four layers has always been widely accepted by everyone in the world.

However, a team of two Australian seismologists at the Australian National University recently claimed that there’s a fifth layer, and it’s massive.

The researchers estimate it to be roughly the size of Pluto.

The solid metal ball buried deep within the Earth would be at least 400 miles thick.

Times are becoming more interesting for Earth; while humanity is taking space exploration to another level, we’re still making discoveries about what’s within the planet.

It’s quite challenging to measure something that’s 4,000 miles below the surface of the Earth.

To accomplish this, seismologists often study shockwaves triggered by Earthquakes.

To put it into perspective, whenever there is an earthquake, the shockwaves travel through all of Earth’s layers at different speeds because of each layer’s different density.

According to research, tremors or shockwaves from earthquakes travel at a different rate through this massive metallic ball.

“Clearly, the innermost inner core has something different from the outer layer. We think that the way the atoms are packed in these two regions are slightly different,” Thanh-Son Pham, co-author of the study, told The Washington Post.

Our home planet truly is a complex creation that always keeps us guessing.

This isn’t the first time someone has talked about a solid metal ball in the Earth’s innermost core, though.

There were certain theories about a giant metal ball resting deep within the Earth around 20 years ago.

However, there was no confirmation or strong evidence around them.

Thanh-Son Pham and Hrvoje Tkalčić’s latest finding only adds evidence towards the existence of this huge metal ball.

That’s quite an achievement.

The Australian duo also mentioned that the new innermost metal core could be the result of a major global tectonic event that happened sometime in the past.

So, an Earthquake may have caused the creation of a massive metal ball underneath the inner core.

Amazing, isn’t it?