Earth's core is 1,000 degrees hotter than what was once believed.

The temperature at the iron core of the Earth is now believed to be approximately one thousand degrees Celsius hotter than previous estimates.

By taking a piece of iron and applying around 15 thousand tons of pressure between two diamonds, researchers in France were able to tell when the iron changed from a solid to a liquid.

Mohamed Mezouar, from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility said: “We have developed a new technique where an intense beam of X-rays from the synchrotron can probe a sample and deduce whether it is solid, liquid or partially molten within as little as a second, using a process known as diffraction.”

The results from the lab, extrapolated along with previous measurements that place the core of the Earth under 3.3 million atmospheres of pressure, estimate the temperature of the Earth’s core at around six thousand degrees Celsius give or take 500 degrees.

The temperature of the Earth’s core is part of understanding other terrestrial processes like the magnetic field of the planet and geothermal changes.

The core of our planet is mostly made up of solid iron, with a liquid outer core.