Scientists Create a New Form of Ice at More Than 2000°C
Scientists have discovered a new form of superionic ice that exists under extreme pressures and temperatures typically found deep within planets. This state of matter features a rigid oxygen lattice with mobile hydrogen nuclei, challenging traditional understandings of water's behavior.
Why it matters
This discovery provides critical insights into planetary science and the exotic states of matter that exist in extreme environments.
Add ScienceAlert on Google If just considered as a liquid, water is extremely weird. (José Manuel Suárez/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0) Water is one of the most commonplace, essential substances in the human world.
We literally can't function without its properties as a near-universal solvent . It falls from the sky. We bathe in it, drink it, and immerse ourselves in it for fun.
But if just considered as a liquid, water is extremely weird , behaving in ways completely at odds with other liquids. It becomes less dense when it freezes. Its surface tension is bizarrely high. So is its boiling point. And, based on its molecular weight, it should be a gas at room temperature.
And that's all at normal, ambient Earth conditions.
Tweak the pressure and the temperature a few notches, and water's outlandish behavior gets even more out of hand.
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