Slashdot Mirror


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."

4 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting. by Control+Group · · Score: 5, Informative

    Short answer: yes.

    Longer answer as gleaned from the link above if people don't want to bother clicking: yes; the Z-machine at Sandia is able (at least) to form Ice VII.

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
  2. Obligatory Comment by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    the Z-machine at Sandia is able (at least) to form Ice VII

    As long as they don't devise the machine capable of making Ice IX, it's all good.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Oh shi... by ebingo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Must be hell frozen!

  4. Ice Polymorphism by Jabba_the_Butt · · Score: 5, Informative

    A fantastic H2O Phase Diagram can be found here (http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/phase.html). At 300C (573 K) you can have ice; you just need a lot of pressure. That kind of pressure is in the several gigapascal range (x10^9 Pa, 1 GPa145,000 psi). Any ice that has a designation (e.g. Ice I, Ice Ih, Ice II, III, V, VII, X, etc.) has a set crystal structure. As you can see on the phase diagram you can have ice at very high temperatures if you have enough pressure. What is present on the planet mentioned in the article is strictly dependent on the pressure and temperature conditions there, which we do not really know.