Scientists have long thought Earth's inner core is like a huge solid metal ball. It could help explain why Earth's magnetic field is so weird. Jung-Fu Lin / UT Jackson School of GeosciencesThe Earth's inner mush revealedA 2021 study had already started to question the big-iron-ball assumption. Seismic waves, they found, weren't really going through the Earth in a way consistent with a fully solid core. AdvertisementAdvertisementIt recreated the intense pressure and temperature conditions found in the inner core inside a lab, and combined that data with a much more advanced computer model.

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Persons: Youjun Zhang, We've, that's, Jung, Fu, Lin, Fu Lin, weren't, Jessica Irving, Zhang Organizations: Service, University of Texas, UT Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Bristol, Science, National Academy of Sciences Locations: Sichuan, shockwaves, England