Image of Neptune taken by NASAs Voyager 2 objective. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Penetrating the structures and residential or commercial properties of superionic ice.
A layer of “hot,” electrically conductive ice could be responsible for generating the electromagnetic fields of ice giant planets like Uranus and Neptune. New work from Carnegie and the University of Chicagos Center for Advanced Radiation Sources exposes the conditions under which 2 such superionic ices form. Their findings are published in Nature Physics..
As all schoolchildren discover, water particles are comprised of 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom– H20. As the conditions in which water exists change, the organization and properties of these molecules are impacted. When liquid water is boiled into steam or frozen into ice, we can see this in our everyday lives.
The molecules that consist of common ice that you might find in your drinking glass or on your driveway in winter season are organized in a crystalline lattice held together by hydrogen bonds in between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Hydrogen bonds are highly versatile. This implies that ice can exist in a striking diversity of various structures– a minimum of 18 known kinds– which emerge under increasingly extreme ecological conditions.
Figure showing how the experiments were carried out, exposing two kinds of superionic ice. Credit: Courtesy of Vitali Prakapenka.
Of particular interest is so-called superionic ice, formed at extremely high pressures and temperature levels, in which the conventional water particle bonds are moved, allowing the hydrogen molecules to drift easily in an oxygen lattice. This mobility makes the ice capable of conducting electricity almost as well as a metal material.
Observations of hot, superionic ice created in the lab have led to contradictory results and there has actually been a fantastic offer of dispute about the precise conditions under which the brand-new residential or commercial properties emerge.
” So, our research study team, led by the University of Chicagos Vitali Prakapenka, set out to use multiple spectroscopic tools to map modifications in ices structure and residential or commercial properties under conditions ranging approximately 1.5 million times typical atmospheric pressure and about 11,200 degrees Fahrenheit,” described Carnegies Alexander Goncharov.
By doing this, the scientists– likewise consisting of Nicholas Holtgrewe formerly of Carnegie, now at the Food and Drug Administration in St Louis, and Sergey Lobanov, previously of Carnegie, now at the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences– were able to determine the introduction of two kinds of superionic ice, among which they suggest might be discovered in the interiors of ice huge worlds Uranus and Neptune.
” In order to probe the structure of this unique state of matter under very extreme conditions– warmed by a laser and compressed in between two diamonds– we used the Advanced Photon Sources fantastic high-energy synchrotron x-ray beam, which was focused down to about 3 micrometers, 30 times smaller than a single human hair,” said Prakapenka, discussing the work done using the facilitys GSECARS beamline. “These experiments are so difficult that we had to run a couple of thousand of them over a years to get enough premium information to resolve the enduring mystery of high-pressure, high-temperature habits of ice under conditions pertinent to huge planet interiors.”.
” Simulations have actually suggested that the magnetic fields of these two worlds are generated in thin, fluid layers discovered at reasonably shallow depths,” Goncharov included. “The conductivity of superionic ice would have the ability to achieve this type of field generation and among the 2 structures we revealed could exist under the conditions found in these magnetic field-generating zones.”.
Further research study is needed to comprehend the conductive properties and viscosity of these ice phases under ice giant-interior conditions.
Referral: “Structure and homes of two superionic ice phases” by Vitali B. Prakapenka, Nicholas Holtgrewe, Sergey S. Lobanov and Alexander F. Goncharov, 14 October 2021, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/ s41567-021-01351-8.
This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, the Deep Carbon Observatory, the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group, and the Carnegie Institution for Science. This work was carried out at GeoSoilEnviroCARS, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory.
A layer of “hot,” electrically conductive ice might be responsible for generating the magnetic fields of ice huge planets like Uranus and Neptune. New work from Carnegie and the University of Chicagos Center for Advanced Radiation Sources exposes the conditions under which two such superionic ices form. We can see this in our daily lives when liquid water is boiled into steam or frozen into ice.
The molecules that make up common ice that you may find in your drinking glass or on your driveway in winter are set up in a crystalline lattice held together by hydrogen bonds in between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This implies that ice can exist in a striking diversity of various structures– at least 18 known forms– which emerge under increasingly severe ecological conditions.