The Earth may be heating unevenly from within, according to new data from ghostly particles called geoneutrinos that stream out of the planet’s interior.

Detectors including SNO+ at Canada’s SNOLAB and JUNO in China capture these particles, which are produced by radioactive decay deep inside the Earth. Their patterns hint that heat production is not uniform.

Queen’s University physicist Mark Chen said the findings open a new window on the planet’s engine. The uneven heating could shape everything from mantle convection to magnetic field generation.

The research, reported via Quanta Magazine, is part of a young field. Geoneutrino detection only became practical in recent decades, and each new dataset sharpens the picture.

If confirmed, lopsided internal heating would revise textbook models that treat the Earth’s interior as broadly symmetric.

Scientists caution that more data is needed. But the prospect of mapping the planet’s furnace in three dimensions is one of the most exciting frontiers in geoscience.