• Question: If the Earth had another core, what would it be called?

    Asked by nihou1234 to Rebecca, Iain, Hayley, Anna on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Iain Bethune

      Iain Bethune answered on 23 Jun 2015:


      This isn’t really possible, as gravity would cause the two cores to be pulled together and merge into one. That’s why the earth has a layered structure, like an onion.

      It is possible on cold, dead bodies like the moon that you can get uneven distributions of mass below the surface – called MASCONs (Mass Concentrations). Even though gravity would tend to pull them together, the moon’s interior is solid, so they can’t move.

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