Artist’s concept (stock illustration). Credit: © Kerri McClellan / Fotolia
Scientists have recreated an elusive form of material that makes up much of the giant planets in our solar system, and the sun. Experiments have given a glimpse of a previously unseen form of hydrogen that exists only at extremely high pressures, >3 million times Earth’s atmosphere. Hydrogen – among the most abundant elements in the Universe – is thought to be found in this high-pressure form in interiors of Jupiter and Saturn.
Researchers around the world have been trying for years to create this form of the element, known as the metallic state, which is considered to be the holy grail of this field of physics. It was 1st theorised to exist 80 years ago. In this latest study from a team of physicists at the University of Edinburgh, researchers used a pair of diamonds to squeeze hydrogen molecules to record pressures, while analysing their behaviour.
They found that at pressures equivalent to 3.25 million times that of Earth’s atmosphere, hydrogen entered a new solid phase – phase V – and started to show some interesting and unusual properties. Its molecules began to separate into single atoms, while the atoms’ electrons began to behave like those of a metal. The phase is only the beginning of the molecular separation and that still higher pressures are needed to create the pure atomic and metallic state predicted by theory.
Professor Eugene Gregoryanz, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the research, said: “Our study presents the first experimental evidence that hydrogen could behave as predicted, although at much higher pressures than previously thought. The finding will help to advance the fundamental and planetary sciences.” http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2016/hydrogen-060116
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