It had been thought superionic ice would not appear until the water was compressed to more than 50 gigapascals of pressure — about the same as the conditions inside rocket fuel as it detonates for liftoff — but these experiments were only at 20 gigapascals. The solid form of water H2O actually comes in more than a dozen different structures, depending on the conditions of pressure and temperature in the environment.
In superionic ice, the oxygen atoms are closely packed and locked in place, while protons can move through the lattice, similar to atoms and electrons in a metal. Its existence has been predicted on the basis of various models and has already been observed under very extreme laboratory conditions.
First theorised in , researchers in the US provided the first direct evidence for superionic ice in However, superionic ice had only previously been glimpsed in a brief instant after the researchers sent a shockwave through a droplet of water. Now, using APS, this team of scientists have found a way to reliably create, sustain and examine the ice. APS is a massive accelerator that drives electrons to extremely high speeds close to the speed of light to generate brilliant beams of X-rays.
Prakapenka and colleagues squeezed their ice samples between two pieces of diamond — the hardest substance on Earth — to simulate the intense pressures, and then shot lasers through the diamonds to heat the sample up. Finally, they sent a beam of X-rays through the sample, and pieced together the arrangement of the atoms inside based on how the X-rays scatter off the sample. Superionic ice is a special crystalline form, half solid, half liquid. An artistic rendering is pictured.
Looking at the structure of the ice, the team realised it had a new phase on its hands, and were able to precisely map its structure and properties.
This has consequences for how the ice behaves — it becomes less dense, but significantly darker because it interacts differently with light. According to Prakapenka, the full range of the chemical and physical properties of superionic ice have yet to be explored. Superionic ice is formed at extremely high temperatures and pressures at the centre of planets like Neptune and Uranus in the outer solar system. L Sun. Size Compatibility iPhone Requires iOS Family Sharing With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.
More By This Developer. WriteUp - Guided Daily Journal. Kinomatic - Pro Video Camera. You Might Also Like. Tiny Planet Pro. FusionLens Show More. Show Less. Seasons: 41 Episodes: 7. Main Actors:. Jeff Probst. Vytas Baskauskas.
Rob Cesternino. Mike White. David Wright. Shane Powers. Title: Survivor. Release Date: Wednesday, May 31st, Created by: Mark Burnett , Charlie Parsons. Genres: Reality. Keywords: Competition Reality-Competition. Season: Show Episodes. We have been doing numbers for quite some time, and my daughter loves math. We have done many amazing worksheets on simple counting, and basic addition of single digits.
Has anyone done this? We used to play lot with numbers this way when young. My daughter loved it. Some colored Popsicle stick and never ending math fun. She is getting absolutely fantastic at it. Voyager set the stage for such ambitious orbiter missions as Galileo to Jupiter and Cassini to Saturn. Today both Voyager spacecraft continue to return valuable science from the far reaches of our solar system. There's no place like home.
Warm, wet and with an atmosphere that's just right, Earth is the only place we know of with life — and lots of it.
JPL's Earth science missions monitor our home planet and how it's changing so it can continue to provide a safe haven as we reach deeper into the cosmos. The rare science opportunity of planetary transits has long inspired bold voyages to exotic vantage points — journeys such as James Cook's trek to the South Pacific to watch Venus and Mercury cross the face of the Sun in Spacecraft now allow us the luxury to study these cosmic crossings at times of our choosing from unique locales across our solar system.
Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. It is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of about kilometers. After being studied with telescopes for more than two centuries, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft, when NASA's Dawn probe arrived in orbit in March Dawn's ongoing detailed observations are revealing intriguing insights into the nature of this mysterious world of ice and rock.
The Jovian cloudscape boasts the most spectacular light show in the solar system, with northern and southern lights to dazzle even the most jaded space traveler. Jupiter's auroras are hundreds of times more powerful than Earth's, and they form a glowing ring around each pole that's bigger than our home planet. NASA's Juno mission will observe Jupiter's auroras from above the polar regions, studying them in a way never before possible.
The discovery of Enceladus' icy jets and their role in creating Saturn's E-ring is one of the top findings of the Cassini mission to Saturn. Further Cassini mission discoveries revealed strong evidence of a global ocean and the first signs of potential hydrothermal activity beyond Earth — making this tiny Saturnian moon one of the leading locations in the search for possible life beyond Earth.
Frigid and alien, yet similar to our own planet billions of years ago, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has a thick atmosphere, organic-rich chemistry and a surface shaped by rivers and lakes of liquid ethane and methane. Cold winds sculpt vast regions of hydrocarbon-rich dunes.
There may even be cryovolcanoes of cold liquid water. NASA's Cassini orbiter was designed to peer through Titan's perpetual haze and unravel the mysteries of this planet-like moon. Astonishing geology and the potential to host the conditions for simple life make Jupiter's moon Europa a fascinating destination for future exploration. Beneath its icy surface, Europa is believed to conceal a global ocean of salty liquid water twice the volume of Earth's oceans.
Tugging and flexing from Jupiter's gravity generates enough heat to keep the ocean from freezing. On Earth, wherever we find water, we find life.
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