X-ray Facility To Simulate Conditions At Earth's Core 37
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Soulskill
from the i-think-hillary-swank-can-answer-your-questions dept.
from the i-think-hillary-swank-can-answer-your-questions dept.
Diggester sends this quote from an article at the BBC:
"The ID24 beam line at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility will use X-ray beams to subject iron and other materials to extraordinary temperatures and pressures. How the X-rays are absorbed should give insight into the mysterious processes going on at and near the Earth's core. For example, the work could unravel why the Earth's magnetic field can 'flip.' ... The samples are compressed at a pressure millions of times higher than that on the Earth's surface. High-power lasers are then fired through the diamonds at the samples, heating them to higher than 10,000C. Then X-rays are used as a probe to determine the precise composition and chemistry of samples."
Re:Bad summary (Score:2, Interesting)
The X-rays will certainly heat the sample very rapidly indeed, and thereby probably increase the pressure in the cell, at least briefly, so I don't think the article is all wrong. Probably better to think of the diamond anvil cell as a pre-pressurizing step.