I suppose my physicist readers – if any – will not be surprised by this, but this is the sort of thing that boggles me. From NewScientist (17 February 2018):
It is called superionic ice. It only occurs at temperatures matching those on the sun’s surface, and pressures exceeding a million Earth atmospheres – the environment predicted at the centre of ice giants. In this hot ice, the oxygen ions of the water molecules behave like a solid, staying in place to form a lattice, while the hydrogen ions flow through it like a fluid.
This structure gives superionic water ice resistance to very high temperatures.
From the academic paper’s abstract:
Using time-resolved optical pyrometry and laser velocimetry measurements as well as supporting density functional theory–molecular dynamics (DFT-MD) simulations, we document the shock equation of state of H2O to unprecedented extreme conditions and unravel thermodynamic signatures showing that ice melts near 5,000 K at 190 GPa.
5000° K appears to be around 8540° F. It’s just so interesting and surprising how the properties of matter change with pressure from surrounding matter.
The real question is whether or not some sort of specific, tangible benefit will come from this research.
And here’s an ice giant that may have this stuff at its core:
Neptune!
Image credit: NASA/JPL
