A new structure of the mysterious ice 'superionic ice' that only melts at high temperatures is discovered, a discovery that approaches the mystery of the planet
A paper has been published stating that a new form of ``superionic ice'' with an extremely high melting point, which is produced by exposing water to tremendous temperature and pressure, has been confirmed. Progress in research on superionic ice, which is said to exist on water-rich planets such as Neptune, is expected to deepen our understanding of the properties of these planets.
Dynamic compression of water to conditions in ice giant interiors | Scientific Reports
Strange Form of Ice Found That Only Melts at Extremely Hot Temperatures : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-form-of-ice-found-that-only-melts-at-extremely-hot-temperatures
Superionic ice, proposed in 1988 and confirmed to exist in 2019, has oxygen atoms confined in a strong cubic lattice, and ionized hydrogen atoms flow within the lattice like electrons flowing in a metal. It is a substance with the structure. Due to this structure, superionic ice has electrical conductivity, and its high melting point allows it to remain solid even at high temperatures.
Superionic ice is a very special form of the familiar substance water, but it may be the most common form of water in the universe, and is found inside Uranus, Neptune, and similar exoplanets. They are thought to be abundant in planets, so they are considered important for deepening our understanding of these planets.
This time, Stanford University physicist Arianna Gleason and her colleagues conducted an experiment in which they irradiated a very powerful laser onto a thin piece of water sandwiched between two diamond layers.
As a result, the pressure rose to 200GPa (2 million atmospheres) and the temperature rose to 5000K (approximately 4726℃) due to continuous shock. X-ray diffraction also revealed the crystal structure of high-temperature, high-density ice.
Moreover, it was confirmed that this ice crystal is a new phase different from the superionic ice observed in 2019. 'Ice XIX', the 19th type of crystal structure discovered this time, has
The electrical conductivity of superionic ice is important because the moving charged particles generate the planet's magnetic field. Gleason and his colleagues believe that there are two phases of superionic ice with different conductivity in Neptune's core, and that a layer of superionic ice like the newly discovered ice XIX increases conductivity. They propose that this could lead to the creation of strange multipolar magnetic fields like those observed on Uranus and Neptune.
The following is the interior of Neptune as predicted by Gleason and his colleagues, which has two layers: the superionic solid BCC and the face-centered cubic lattice structure (FCC) .
``The discovery of water-rich Neptune-type exoplanets raises the need for a more detailed understanding of the phase diagram of water under the pressure and temperature conditions associated with planetary interiors,'' Gleason and colleagues wrote in their paper. said.
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