Ice and water may not seem very exciting to most of us, but from a scientific standpoint, they are actually quite strange. You’ve discovered an entirely new type of ice, described as being ‘shot’, and can be found in alien worlds.
The ice in freezers and covering the polar caps is officially known as Ice I, but it’s not the only form. In fact, there are about 20 types of ice with different atomic structures that form when ice or water is subjected to different conditions of temperature and pressure.
Ice I is the only form that appears naturally on the surface of the Earth, but other forms have been created in laboratory experiments, found deep within planets, and are believed to exist in space and on other planets and moons like Europa. It is considered
In a new study, scientists at University College London have discovered a completely new type of ice, unlike any previously known ice. Most forms of ice have a crystalline structure in which the atoms follow a uniform pattern, but because this new one is amorphous, the atoms are randomly arranged, similar to the structure of liquid water. increase. It also has the same density as liquid water, instead of being less dense like regular ice. Together, these properties have led the team to propose that this could actually be the true glassy state of water.
This new form of ice has a slightly dry-sounding name: medium density amorphous (MDA) ice. This is his third form of known amorphous ice and, as you might imagine, falls right in between existing high and low density forms.
To create MDA ice in the lab, the team used a process called ball milling. Regular ice was placed in a jar containing stainless steel balls approximately 1 cm (0.4 inch) wide, chilled to -200 °C (-328 °F), and vigorously shaken.
“Rather than ending up with a small piece of ice, we realized that we had come up with a whole new kind of thing with some remarkable properties,” said lead author of the study, Dr. Alexander Ross Finsen. I’m here.
Another interesting property of fresh ice is that MDA releases a large amount of heat as it warms and begins to recrystallize.
MDA ice has not been seen on Earth outside of the lab, but the research team suggests it may be present on Jupiter’s frigid moons like Ganymede and Europa. Gas giants can exert tidal forces on regular ice in a manner similar to ball mills, and the heat released when warmed can cause “icequakes.”
Further study of new forms of ice may explain the still unexplained wonders of water.
A study was published in a journal chemistry.
Source: University College London, Cambridge
