Illuminating Earth's Core: Unveiling Light-Infused Secrets

Researchers at RIKEN's SPring-8 Center have developed a new pressure scale using advanced x-rays, revealing that Earth's inner core contains twice as much light material as previously estimated. The previous scale was found to overestimate pressure by over 20% at levels found in the core. This discovery has significant implications for understanding Earth's composition and the evolution of the solar system. The team used Inelastic X-ray Scattering (IXS) to measure the sound velocity of a rhenium sample under extreme pressure, providing a direct relationship between rhenium density and pressure. This breakthrough allows for easier future pressure measurements and suggests a reassessment of material properties at high pressures.