Ghostly particles unearth core radioactivity
news @ nature.com�-�Ghostly particles unearth core radioactivity�-�Antineutrinos created inside our planet reveal how it stays warm.
The detection of these anti-electron neutrinos or geoneutrinos, will some day lead to the development of a complete 3D map of the interior of the whole Earth. It will be color coded, and the colors will indicate the precise radioactive element that emitted the original antineutrino. This in turn, will show how the radioactive elements are distributed within the mantle, and will probably illuminate processes that we can't even begin to imagine.
The resulting map will be built up, similar to a CT scan or MRI, only in this case the entire Earth will be "x-raying" itself from the inside out, with antineutrinos.
The results in this report, confirm that about half the heat within the Earth, results from the decay of radioactive elements, which in turn drives convection within the Earth's mantle.
The detection of these anti-electron neutrinos or geoneutrinos, will some day lead to the development of a complete 3D map of the interior of the whole Earth. It will be color coded, and the colors will indicate the precise radioactive element that emitted the original antineutrino. This in turn, will show how the radioactive elements are distributed within the mantle, and will probably illuminate processes that we can't even begin to imagine.
The resulting map will be built up, similar to a CT scan or MRI, only in this case the entire Earth will be "x-raying" itself from the inside out, with antineutrinos.
The results in this report, confirm that about half the heat within the Earth, results from the decay of radioactive elements, which in turn drives convection within the Earth's mantle.
posted by Deep Hal at 2:24:00 AM
3 Comments:
Very interesting. I though pressure, not radioactive decay, drove most of the heat at the core.
And I thought that dodging big fish and tolerating Jar Jar were the only worries on the trip through the core of Naboo.
Not sure really ... Heat is movement, and there is residual heat left over from the formation of the Earth, 4.5 Billion years ago, when the Earth was basically a huge lava ball, floating in space, with the odd comet crashing in, now and then, to deposit the water that eventually formed the oceans.
As far as technology for passing through a planet's core:
"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace
and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire."
The amount of years in a generation, is an interesting topic itself, but say it is 20 --- and perhaps the Jedi Knights had just developed the lightsaber, and were only just a tad more advanced scientifically than we are, at the present moment --- So imagine where we could be at 20,000 years from now, technologically speaking ... mind blowing ... we could probably have vehicles and force-fields to have underwater cities, and travel throught the liquid water-filled core of a planet. :)
I always look back at the last 20-30 years and wonder what another 20 will bring. There's no telling since the the information revolution is making the rate of change more and more exponential.
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