Scientists Just Created Ice That Burns Hotter Than Lava
Forget your freezer. Researchers have cooked up a bizarre, super-dense ice that stays solid at over 2,000°C. It’s a masterclass in cosmic absurdity, proving that nature is just as weird as our worst sci-fi nightmares.
Led by physicist Alexis Forestier at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, a team decided to torture water until it surrendered its secrets. By squeezing water samples between diamond anvils and blasting them with lasers, they simulated the crushing environments of Uranus and Neptune.
Under pressures reaching 2.3 million atmospheres, they finally observed the hcp-phase of ice. In this state, oxygen atoms hold a rigid structure like a solid, while hydrogen nuclei zip through them like a liquid. This isn't just a party trick for molecules; it’s likely what keeps the magnetic fields of giant planets looking like a chaotic mess.
This discovery confirms that at pressures above 200 gigapascals, hcp-ice becomes the dominant, stable structure over the previously known fcc-phase. The team is now scrambling to figure out if this weird, hot ice actually conducts electricity, which would fundamentally change how we model the innards of our solar system's cold, mysterious giants.
So, we've officially reached the point where ice is hot, fire is cold in theory, and physics is just gaslighting us. It's fascinating how much money is spent to recreate the inside of a planet just to prove that water is even more confused about its identity than we are. Expect to see this in a Marvel movie by next Tuesday.
Source: Phys. Rev. B
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