image: A very thin beam of synchrotron X-ray is used to detect whether solid iron has started to melt. This will change the crystalline structure, in turn modifying the "diffraction pattern" of deflected X-rays behind the sample. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the April 26, 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Simone Anzellini at French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Arpajon, France, and colleagues was titled, "Melting of Iron at Earth's Inner Core Boundary Based on Fast X-ray Diffraction." view more
Credit: [Image courtesy of ESRF/Denis Andrault]