Measuring iron in motion at Earth-core conditions

It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments.

But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from Earth's surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate the extreme temperature and pressure conditions of Earth's inner core.

This enabled the first-ever simultaneous measurement of iron's dynamic strength at relevant temperatures and pressures. ...