• Question: How hot is the centre of the earth?

    Asked by 11wiloma to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 19 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      It’s about 5500 degrees. Oddly enough, it’s solid, even at that temperature! That’s because it’s under so much pressure that the melting point of iron changes dramatically. The outer core is colder (somewhere about 4000 degrees), but it’s liquid.

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 21 Mar 2012:

      This is very nearly as hot as the surface of the sun! (Although the core of the sun, and “solar corona” are hotter)

    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 21 Mar 2012:

      Yeah thats impressive, Something that amazed me was that in a tungsten light bulb the filament is at 3422 oC which is ridiculously hot… You can see why they weren’t very efficient.

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