The Butt Ugly Weblog

The Core

From the Wired Magazine:

Stevenson’s vision, outlined in the May 15 issue of the journal Nature, involves blasting open a fissure in the Earth's crust measuring several hundred meters in length and depth, and about 30 centimeters wide; a task "presumably requiring a nuclear device."

Once that ground was cleaved, about 100,000 tons -- and perhaps as much as several million tons -- of molten iron would be poured in, along with the probe or probes. Gravity would draw the iron, and the probe floating within it, at a running pace through less-dense minerals down to the core 3,000 kilometers below. The probe would take temperature, pressure and composition readings along the way.

Well, I have to say that this is the wackiest scientific proposal I've heard in a while. It might just be crazy enough to work. But a) wouldn't you get the temperature of the molten iron, and b) that sounds like a waste of perfectly good iron :-).