05/04/2025
What’s Hiding Inside the Cores of Our Solar System? 🔥
Ever wonder what’s really at the center of planet s —and even the Sun? From molten iron to slushy superionic ice, the truth is honestly stranger than fiction.
The Sun’s blazing heart burns at a staggering 27 million °F, fusing hydrogen into helium and producing the light and energy that fuels all life on Earth.
Meanwhile, the inner rocky planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars — reveal a range of core activity. Earth’s molten iron core powers our magnetic shield, Mercury’s dense core hints at a cataclysmic collision, Venus’ remains a mystery, and Mars’ small, inactive core contributed to its atmospheric loss.
Beyond the asteroid belt, the massive gas and ice giants hide their secrets under layers of gas and ice. Jupiter and Saturn may cradle solid cores surrounded by metallic hydrogen — an exotic, conductive fluid responsible for their mighty magnetic fields.
Uranus and Neptune’s interiors are even stranger, with icy-rocky cores and mantles full of slushy, pressurized oceans of water, methane, and ammonia.
Scientists believe these may contain superionic ice — a bizarre form of matter found nowhere else.
Unlocking the mysteries of these hidden cores brings us closer to understanding how planets form, change, and possibly harbor life.
learn more https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/solar-system-facts/