



Phase V hydrogen, created by crushing Earth's lightest element with mind-boggling pressures, gives the physicists a glimpse of the inner atmosphere of a gas giant, where pressures reach millions of (Earth) atmospheres







Crushing hydrogen

At the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, doctoral student Philip Dalladay-Simpson and his colleagues Ross Howie and Eugene Gregoryanz put a small amount of hydrogen between two diamond anvils, and dialed up the pressure to 384 gigapascals, or 55 million pounds per square inch (psi). By comparison, Earth's atmosphere is 100 kilopascals, or 15 pounds per square inch, at sea level. On Jupiter, the weight of the atmosphere hits 29 million psi at about 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) below the cloud tops, and models suggest that's where hydrogen may take the form of a liquid metal.

In this case, when the pressure hit the 325-gigapascal mark, or 47 million psi, the hydrogen became a solid , with the atoms forming layers that alternated between orderly and jumbled arrangements. This is the first time anyone has seen this form of the element at close to room temperature (about 300 degrees Kelvin, or about 80 degrees Fahrenheit), the scientists said.



This is pretty cool, ATS.Scientists have created what's called 'Phase V Hydrogen' by applying intense pressure to the Hydrogen atom. After applying intense pressure(s) in a lab, scientists were able to create this new phase of Hydrogen which apparently happens before the Liquid Metal Hydrogen phase; a phase that is still theorized since it hasn't officially confirmed. There is speculation that the center of Jupiter has this Metallic Hydrogen at the core of Jupiter where pressures reach 29million psi, it's speculated that Hydrogen turns into Liquid Metal. Of these altered states when there is pressure applied in the amount of 47million psi, Hydrogen becomes solid.SOLID HYDROGEN? That's off the charts! This is way cool, ATS. Even though Jupiter doesn't have the PSI to make Hydrogen solid, this Liquid Metal thing is something that's pretty exciting to consider. Personally, I think Jupiter has solid ground or at least a solid core because it's features don't really change. But what do I know? I'm not a scientist. What says ATS?