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New research challenges the prevailing theory that the unique nature of Earth’s iron was the result of how its core was formed billions of years ago. The study opens the door to competing theories about why levels of certain heavy forms of iron, known as isotopes, are higher on Earth than in other bodies in the solar system.
Rather than attributing Earth’s anomalous iron composition to the formation of the planet’s core, one study suggests that the peculiar iron’s isotopic signature developed later in Earth’s history.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
