C’is a major discovery that has just been made by American physicists from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While science currently identifies around twenty, they have identified a new form of ice that forms only under extreme pressure conditions and is therefore naturally not present on the surface of the Earth, as explained by Futura Sciences.
It could be on other planets, the Moon, or even outside the solar system, which could make these exoplanets habitable. The study also demonstrates that this form of ice could exist in the Earth’s mantle, ie the intermediate layer between the Earth’s core and the Earth’s crust.
“The most precise measurements ever made”
A water sample was placed for testing in a “diamond anvil cell,” the website explains. The team of student-researchers, led by Zach Grande, was surprised at the level of pressure, almost three times lower than expected (300,000 atmospheres instead of a million), at which this ice was forming.
“Zach’s work has demonstrated that this change to ionic form occurs at much lower pressures than previously thought,” said Ashkan Salamat, chair of the science department at the University of Nevada. “It’s the missing piece and it’s the most accurate measurements ever made on the water in these conditions,” he added.
READ ALSOAn unprecedented (and not very reassuring) discovery at the North and South Poles
–
