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Antimatter

5 Facts you should Know about the - Antimatter Antimatter is the stuff of science fiction. In the book and film  Angels and Demons , Professor Langdon tries to save Vatican City from an antimatter bomb.  Star Trek ’s starship Enterprise uses matter-antimatter annihilation propulsion for faster-than-light travel. But antimatter is also the stuff of reality. Antimatter particles are almost identical to their matter counterparts except that they carry the opposite charge and spin. When antimatter meets matter, they immediately annihilate into energy. While antimatter bombs and antimatter-powered spaceships are far-fetched, there are still many facts about antimatter that will tickle your brain cells. 2. Antimatter is closer to you than you think. Small amounts of antimatter constantly rain down on the Earth in the form of cosmic rays, energetic particles from space. These antimatter particles reach our atmosphere at a rate ranging from less than one per square met...

Superionic ice

Superionic Ice

Superionic water, also called superionic ice or ice XVIII is a phase of water that exists at extremely high temperatures and pressures. In superionic water, water molecules break apart and the oxygen ions crystallize into an evenly spaced lattice while the hydrogen ions float around freely within the oxygen lattice.[ The freely mobile hydrogen ions make superionic water almost as conductive as typical metals.Superionic water is distinct from ionic water, which is a hypothetical liquid state characterized by a disordered soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions.

While theorized for decades, it was not until the 1990s that the first experimental evidence emerged for superionic water. Initial evidence came from optical measurements of laser-heated water in a diamond anvil cell,and from optical measurements of water shocked by extremely powerful lasers.The first definitive evidence for the crystal structure of the oxygen lattice in superionic water came from x-ray measurements on laser-shocked water which were reported in 2019.

If it were present on the surface of the Earth, superionic ice would rapidly decompress. In May 2019, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were able to create superionic ice in a laboratory, confirming it to be almost four times as dense as normal ice and black in color.Superionic water is theorized to be present in the mantles of giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune.

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