At the end of June, researchers suggested adding some new details to the present scientific model of Earth’s outer central core; it’s rather arcane, but the news is a good reminder for us all to honor those who accurately imagined the Earth’s structure without the aid of supercomputers or other modern tools.

These thinkers were among those who first drew the correct images of our planet’s inner structure, using math, logic, basic seismological tools (in some cases), and physics:

• Isaac Newton
• Inge Lehmann
• Beno Gutenberg
• Emil Wiechert
• Richard Dixon Oldham
• Andrija Mohorovičić
• Harold Jeffreys