By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER<\/p>\n
Published: 12:10 BST, 4 August 2026 | Updated: 13:57 BST, 4 August 2026<\/p>\n
Earth's inner core is filled with a rare material known as 'extreme hydrogen', a study has claimed.<\/p>\n
This bizarre substance, known as super\u2013ionic hydrogen, behaves unlike anything found on the surface.<\/p>\n
At the extreme pressures found 3,200 miles (5,100 km) beneath the surface, this otherworldly version of hydrogen flows like a liquid through solid iron and even conducts electricity.<\/p>\n
Now, researchers say that this flow of extreme hydrogen could play an important role in shaping the magnetic field that makes life on Earth possible.<\/p>\n
Although scientists have long suspected there might be hydrogen in the inner core, it has proven challenging to work out exactly how it is distributed.<\/p>\n
In their new paper, published in the journal PNAS, the researchers used quantum\u2013mechanical simulations to model how hydrogen might behave in the extreme conditions of the inner core.<\/p>\n
They discovered that super\u2013ionic hydrogen isn't evenly distributed, but is most likely concentrated right on the boundary between the inner and outer core.<\/p>\n
At temperatures of 5,226\u00b0C (5,500 K), hydrogen makes up 16 per cent of the atoms in the inner\u2013core boundary, dropping to around nine per cent near the centre.<\/p>\n
Scientists say that Earth's solid inner core could be hiding a bizarre form of 'extreme hydrogen' that is unlike anything found on the surface\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 102 quintillion\u2013tonne sphere of iron alloy that makes up our planet's innermost core is one of the most extreme environments in the solar system.<\/p>\n
More than 3,000 miles beneath the surface, the core is crushed by more than 3.3 million atmospheres of pressure and heated to temperatures close to the surface of the sun.<\/p>\n
This unique part of the planet also has a number of strange and contradictory properties that have baffled scientists for decades.<\/p>\n
Scientists know that the planet's innermost core is made of superheated iron, kept solid by the extreme pressures 3,200 miles (5,100km) beneath the surface.<\/p>\n