Liquid Core reactor. A closed loop liquid core nuclear reactor
Nuclear thermal rocket ...
At various points in the liquid core, fluid is rising in cells driven by thermal convection. The rising fluid carries with it the toroidal magnetic field.
In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) first proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that parts of the Earth's crust slowly drift atop a liquid core.
This made Earth scientists realize that perhaps a similar "fluid dynamo" operated in the Earth's liquid core, and was the cause of the Earth's magnetic field (rather than some strange sort of permanent magnetism).
Convection of molten iron within the outer liquid core, along with a Coriolis effect caused by the overall planetary rotation, tends to organize these "electric currents" in rolls aligned along the north-south polar axis.
Titan has no intrinsic magnetic field; therefore it has no electrically conducting and convecting liquid core. Its interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere creates a magnetic wake behind Titan.
The shadow zone location also puts constraints on the size of the liquid core.
S-waves are not detected by stations "shadowed" by the liquid core of Earth. P-waves do reach the side of Earth opposite the earthquake, but their interaction with Earth's core produces another shadow zone, where no P-waves are seen.
Earth's magnetic field is probably produced by electric currents in its liquid core.
Rotating magnetic fields ...
(Added 03/13/03) It has been known for many years that both Earth and Venus have liquid cores. Now, researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have determined that Mars, too, has a liquid core.
This dynamo effect would result from the circulation of the planet's iron-rich liquid core.
The dynamo theory suggests that the iron core is liquid (except at the very center of the earth where the pressure solidifies the core), and that convection currents within the liquid core behave like the individual wires in a dynamo, ...
Scientists were able to calculate closer measurements of the rate of change in Mars' spin axis. Using the new measurements, researchers now will be able to learn more about Mars' interior and whether it has a solid or liquid core.
by volcanoes, and by impacts, and may be produced artificially by explosions and mechanical devices, tell us about the interior in several general ways. The figure on the right illustrates for a planet with varying interior density and a liquid core.
This odd combination of crustal and core material can be explained by a collision of two differentiated asteroids in which the still-liquid core of one asteroid mixed with the solidified crust of the other.
This remains a controversial subject, however, and further studies of Mars - which shares Earth's rotation period and axial tilt, but not its large moon or liquid core - may provide additional information.
 See also: Core, Earth, Time, Planet, Light
  
|
RSS
