FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2023--

MrBeast said, ‘I thought people would use the knowledge to innovate and be inspired, but tons just copy exactly what I do and don’t change anything’

Bank of England rate-setter Swati Dhingra warned that consumers should prepare for more food price spikes in the

Many of us look to the stars for answers to life’s most complex questions. But actually, some of the greatest mysteries lie beneath our very feet. One might think we’d know the Earth pretty well by now but, in fact, our planet’s core remains shrouded in enigma. Indeed, there are two gigantic blobs located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean that occupy around six per cent of the world’s entire volume. And yet, we’re still not entirely sure what they’re made of or where they came from. There are a number of hypotheses, including that they are piles of oceanic crust that have accumulated over billions of years. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But a more interesting theory is that they are huge chunks of an ancient planet that hit the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. To give an indication of just how massive these things are, the structure under Africa – an area known as Tuzo – is thought to be around 800km (497 miles) tall – the equivalent of some 90 Mount Everests stacked on top of one another, as IFLScience notes. The problem with determining the origin of these monster formations is that there are no direct ways of observing the Earth’s core. The deepest hole humans have ever dug – branded the "entrance to hell" – reached a pretty staggering 12,263m (40,230ft), but that doesn’t even come close to breaking through the crust to the layers beneath. Our most effective tool for analysing what lies beneath the ground is a technique called seismic tomography, which looks at how waves of energy travel when earthquakes occur. Since rocks and liquids have different densities, the waves move through them at different speeds. By measuring the tremors from different points on the surface, geologists can determine what kind of material the waves are travelling through and, in so doing, map out the Earth’s interior. It was by using this technique that the two unusual structures – known as large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) – were found. Waves travel more slowly in these areas – fondly known as “blobs” – than through the surrounding lower mantle, indicating that they’re made of something different. We can’t tell what this material is based on seismic tomography data alone, but some scientists like to believe that they are the remnants of an ancient planet called Theia – an idea known as the “giant impact hypothesis”. According to this hypothesis, around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object collided with the Earth. This impact not only created the planet we call home today, but also threw off enough rock to form the moon that lights up our night skies. Some scientists suggest that some of Theia’s leftovers also sunk to the bottom of the planet, probably settling somewhere above the core – thereby forming at least one of the two LLSVPs. More Updates About Strange Blob Structures Inside Planet Earth youtu.be Experts have been investigating the area for decades but there’s still no way of knowing for sure just what these two giant blobs are. Still, studies into Theia have offered important insights into how the possible collision might have kickstarted key plate tectonic and mantle motion inside our planet – crucial processes for establishing the world on which we live. It’s also a useful reminder that we still have so much to learn about our planet and where we came from. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Gambling regulators have fined the online sports betting company PointsBet $25,000, citing violations of New Jersey sports betting laws

Wireless audio finally landed on the Nintendo Switch in 2021, and while it's nice to

Metal detecting can be a pretty thankless task, with most enthusiasts lucky if they find a couple of quid or an old belt buckle. But for one man in Australia, the experience was out of this world. David Hole was out digging for gold in Maryborough Regional Park, near Melbourne, back in 2015 when his trusty detector alerted him to a strange, red-brown rock embedded in some yellow clay. Hole took the mysterious boulder home with him and did his utmost to crack it open, using a rock saw, a sledgehammer, a drill, and even dousing it in acid, according to Science Alert. And yet, nothing left so much as a dent. Admitting defeat years later, in 2018, Hole took his find to the Melbourne Museum, hoping someone there could explain its impenetrability; convinced it contained a golden nugget. However, the discovery was far more significant than a precious metal: it was a 4.6 billion-year-old glimpse at the birth of our solar system – a rare meteorite that had crashed down to Earth. The museum’s geologists, Dermot Henry and Bill Birch, said they grew excited as soon as Hole pulled the enigmatic rock from his rucksack. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2019, Henry recalled: "It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it. "That's formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them." Meanwhile, Birch told the paper he knew the specimen was special as soon as he held it. “If you saw a rock on earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn’t be that heavy,” he said. Testing soon confirmed their suspicions, as well as the composition of this extraordinary chunk of history. In July 2019, the two colleagues published a scientific paper describing the meteorite, which they christened “Maryborough”, after the area where it was found. The space rock, which measures 38.5cm by 14.5cm by 14.5cm, weighs a staggering 17 kg, and after using a diamond saw to slice through it, the experts discovered that it is what is known as an H5 ordinary chondrite. This means that it contains tiny crystallised droplets (chondrules), that were created by flash heating of dust clouds in the early solar system. "Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration. They transport us back in time, providing clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System (including Earth)," Henry said in a statement published by Museums Victoria. "Some provide a glimpse at the deep interior of our planet. In some meteorites, there is 'stardust' even older than our Solar System, which shows us how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table. "Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life." The scientist added that the Maryborough Meteorite was most likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Despite all of Henry and Birch’s work, plenty of questions surrounding the rock remain unanswered. They don’t know for sure when it landed on Earth, with carbon 14 testing it was between 100 and 1,000 years ago. Still, multiple meteor sightings were reported in the Maryborough district between 1889 and 1951, so it could have crashed down within this relatively recent time period. Whatever its precise origins, the researchers insist it’s worth more to science than its weight in gold. "This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there's (sic) been thousands of gold nuggets found," Henry told Channel 10 News at the time. "Looking at the chain of events, it's quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all." Birch echoed this sentiment, adding: “When you consider all the events this chunk of rock has experienced since its formation 4.6 billion years ago, it's really mind-boggling that we get the opportunity to hold it and study it today. How good is that?" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

India is about to make a bold attempt to land on the moon with its

HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 2023--

Apple has lost around $200 billion in market capitalization over several days as tensions between the U.S. and China rise, with several media outlets reporting this week that the iPhone maker is being singled out by Beijing

Mixer was a Microsoft-owned streaming service that was shut down in 2020, following which Ninja moved to Twitch and he now streams on Kick

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