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Strange Alien World Made of "Hot Ice"
David Shiga writes "The smallest planet ever seen passing in front of its parent star is a strange world of scorching hot ice, astronomers say. The 22-Earth-mass planet has been known since 2004, but recent observations of it passing in front of its parent star have allowed them to learn much more about it. It appears to be made mostly of water, but not in liquid form. The planet orbits so close to its parent star that its surface is a broiling 300 C, keeping any water there in vapor form. Beneath the atmosphere, the water is even hotter, but is at such high pressure because of the planet's large mass that it stays in a solid, "hot ice" form."
Kinda OT, but wonder if hot ice can be made on earth in a controlled environment.
Is suprising to me. It amazes that there is such a variety of different atmospheres and terrains even within our own solar system. The dynamic range of planet building is astounding, considering they all basically started from the same place. How is it possible that so many different types of planets are possible, when you start with essentially the same conditions? Small chanes in randomness really effect the planetary building system, even when the system is so large. Really incredible.
Correct me if I am wrong, please. When water molecules turn to ice as we know it, it becomes a hexagon structure of linked molecules. My impression is that water, under high pressure, while "solid", wouldn't form this structure. Could we really then call it "Ice"?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
According to this paper, if you are in hot ice, you'd be zapped or fried (maybe that's the same thing) ;^)
The "faith" is in the eye of the reader.
As you don't know the data, you have the following choices:
1 - Believe the scientific method is good enough, and that those people know their job, and so, accept this as scientific truth, as long as someone more competent than you does not disprove it
2 - Disbelieve it, and thus, try to prove it wrong. The problem is that there are a lot of people on this planet more competent than you are who are already working on the data to see if it is correct or not. Apparently, until now, no one saw an error in the data.
3 - Disbelieve it blindly, just because it seems strange or alien to you. Now, you're falling on faith, not reason. And you ARE a earth-flattener.
The scientific method is not about some prophet dictating dogmatic truths about the universe he/she finds poetic.
It is engineered to make it easy to find errors in reasonings or methods.
In fact, there is a whole philosophic branch working on that (Epistémologie, in french). Popper is a name that you should google, if you're interested about that.
So, when a handful of scientists say anything, ANYTHING, you can bet at least twice of thrice (or 10x, or even 100x) more people are busy verifying the facts, if only to be able to publish the contradictory article. What you see there is competition at its best.
The whole majority of people on this planet, including those who followed high level studies in university in the field (i.e. physics, maths, etc.) cannot hope to even understand what's going on because they don't work 24 hours per day on the subject. It's like saying: I don't believe this guy can run 100 meters in 10 seconds because I know *I* can't do it in 12. Of course, having scientific background can help you understand somewhat, but to understand more than that, you'll have to work a lot.
So, in the end, this is a matter of trust. Something like opensource: The articles are published, and everyone, anyone can go read them, and find the error. No one reported the error? So perhaps there is none, and the article is right. Again, in software-parlance, it means that people using this software accept the fact they are "probably safe" not because they read the code, but because they know people more skilled than they are are reading the code.
It becomes blind faith if you accept it wholeheartedly, or if you refuse it blindly.
But all in all, there is one fact that only G.W. Bush would believe he could disprove: No TV set stopped functionning because its user believed it could not work. And planes don't stop flying just because there are some people disbelieving that something weighting more than air should not fly.
There is an Ice-IX, but it only exists at a combination of very low temperature (less than 140K) and very high pressure (~300MPa). Raise the temperature, and there will be a conversion to another polymorph of ice (or to liquid water). This site has some good information on the phases of water, especially the ice polymorphs.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."