Eli5: How does the core of the Earth (or any planets) not cool and still give off tons of heat energy? Where is this energy coming from?
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As rest said, they cool off. Smaller planets cool off faster (still 100s of millions to billions of years).
That happened to Mars: core cooled, because of that magnetic field dissipated (no circling core to generate it), and that exposed surface of the planet to the Solar wind. It is assumed that is how Mars was stripped of water. Solar wind blew off atmosphere (no magnetic field to protect it), lowered pressure, water evaporated and subsequently was blown off as well.
It is stipulated that hot circling core and magnetic field due to that might be important for sustainability of the life on the planets. So smaller planets might not be good places long term as they cool off faster.
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