Image courtesy of
Federico Grassell
e courtesy of Federico Grassell
Joel Kontinen
Researchers are investigating an alien version of water inside the strange, icy interiors of
Uranus and Neptune.
In a new study, scientists have devised a theoretical computer model and used it to peer inside the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. With this tool, the team studied the thermal and electrical conductivity of the unusual water inside of these planets. In simulating these physical processes on the teeny-tiny atomic scale, the researchers hope that this new model will reveal information about the icy bodies' internal structure, magnetic fields, how they evolved and exactly how old they are.
The team looked at three different phases of water that could exist in these planets interiors: ice, liquid and superionic (superionic water exists at extremely high temperatures and pressures.) But, as the researchers explained in the statement, water on (and inside of) an alien planet is far different from water on Earth/
The study did not give hints of the ago of the gas planets, which is taught to be 13.8 million years, and life is taught to be living on the
icy moons.
"In such exotic physical conditions, we cannot think of ice as we are used to," SISSA professors and study co-authors Federico Grasselli and Stefano Baroni said in the statement.
Source:
Gohd, Chelsea, 2020. Scientists probe the weird, alien water inside of Uranus and Neptune.
Space. com 14 August
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