why is the middle part of the earth hotter than the sun?
Answers
Explanation:
The surface of the Sun is hot – over 5500 degrees Celsius (which is nearly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit . But if new findings are correct, then the center of our own planet may actually be hotter – over 1,000 degrees hotter than previously thought.
It’s been known for some time that the Earth’s core is made primarily of molten iron, and that it’s the temperature difference between the liquid core of the Earth and its solid mantle that causes the Earth to have a magnetic field. An experiment 20 years ago used optical methods to observe the Earth’s core, leading to a temperature estimate of the Earth’s core at about 5000 degrees Celsius. However, those results may have been thrown off the presence of recrystallizing iron particles – which can throw off the experiment.
To obtain a more accurate estimate, a team of researchers from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility developed an X-ray instrument that can gain precise information about the molecular structure of a substance. This structural information lets scientists understand whether a metal, for instance, is in a solid, liquid or partially-molten state.
There are three main sources of heat in the deep earth: (1) heat from when the planet formed and accreted, which has not yet been lost; (2) frictional heating, caused by denser core material sinking to the center of the planet; and (3) heat from the decay of radioactive elements.