Scientists have officially declared the existence of hot ‘superionic’ ice which is water, frozen, but which can still stay in solid form even at extremely high temperatures. This strange ice is only achievable because of severe pressure, and scientists believe that this could link to understandings of the ice structures within Uranus or Neptune. Usually, on Earth, the boiling and freezing forms of water are different: when it’s hot it boils, and when the temperature is cold, it freezes.
However, in the void of space, water can’t possibly be in a liquid form because it quickly bolis and evaporates even at temperatures of -270 degrees Celsius and then distilling into ice crystals.
However, it has been hypothesized that at intense high-pressure settings, the water changes its form into solid, even at excessively high temperatures, and now researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory watched this for the first time.
Federica Coppari and her team from LLNL developed Ice VII, a crystalline type of ice of 3 gigapascals, and shot it with powerful lasers. The consequent ice had a leading flow of ions and not electrons, thus its name: superionic ice. The research team placed a thin sheet of water in between two diamonds, and then six enormous lasers were set to produce several shockwaves at a gradually growing force to contract the water at extremely high pressure.
Scientists obtained hot ‘superionic’ ice that’s thought to exist on Uranus and Neptune
The team of scientists then, to see if the water is indeed frozen, used lasers to explode a tiny fragment of iron foil with 16 more pulses, generating a surge of plasma that produced an x-ray at the exact moment.
These x-rays revealed a structure that scientists have never seen before: cubic crystals holding oxygen atoms in their every corner, and another atom at the core of each face. Marius Millot of the LLNL said that this piece of evidence is completing the puzzle predicted since decades but never proved.
The findings could come as a hint to how the icy planets like Uranus and Neptune could have such weird magnetic fields, and other questions still left unanswered about the ice giants.
Millot explained that because the water ice deep within Neptune and Uranus has a crystalline structure, it is possible that hot ‘superionic’ ice could, in fact, not flowing like a liquid but has a solid structure. This may have a massive impact on the way scientists understand the internal design and the development of the ice planets.
Andre Blair s is the lead editor for . He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Andre specializes in environmental health, but writes on a variety of issues.