Thread: Ice Whine

Stole this from an article:

Ocean worlds

"Water has more than a dozen solid states, only one of which is our familiar ice," says Frederic Pont of Geneva University. "Under very high pressure, water turns into other solid states denser than both ice and liquid water, just as carbon transforms into diamond under extreme pressures."

Hard for me to get my head around this. I can only picture the ice in my rum & coke. Just how many forms of solid water are there? Is the ice in my glass different than the ice in a glacier or iceberg? Any experts out there who can enlighten me?

The different forms of ice have different crystalline structures.

Here's one link which shows several of them.

http://www.london-nano.com/content/r...s/newiceforms/

Originally Posted by Lynx_Fox

The different forms of ice have different crystalline structures.

Here's one link which shows several of them.

http://www.london-nano.com/content/r...s/newiceforms/

That was an interesting link but it left me wondering why it is important to know the different states of ice (16 at last count according to article). Does ice get harder therefore making it more difficult to penetrate or drill into?

My original quote was from an article on ocean worlds. I went there to see if there could be planets completely composed of water. If we can have gas giants then can there be gas planets entirely composed of water vapor?

If a gas is formed by heating an element then what happens to the half of a gas giant that isn't facing the star? Take Jupiter for instance...does the gas solidify somewhat on the side that isn't in sunlight? Or does it not get cold enough, long enough, to have any affect? Internal heating? How would a water vapor planet behave in orbit and rotating?

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

Originally Posted by Lynx_Fox

The different forms of ice have different crystalline structures.

Here's one link which shows several of them.

http://www.london-nano.com/content/r...s/newiceforms/

That was an interesting link but it left me wondering why it is important to know the different states of ice (16 at last count according to article). Does ice get harder therefore making it more difficult to penetrate or drill into?

Sure it's properties are different in just about every form, density, hardness, vapor pressure and many other ways. Why is it important? At this point perhaps it's mostly just academic--but there might be engineering applications down the road.

Amorphous (random lattice) ice is useful in cryogenics, because it freezes without growing little spears that rupture cell walls. Also you can freeze a specimen dead still and well protected for the microscope. Would be a good way to keep strawberries too.

You know Jupiter has water moons right?

I recall that ice sublimating (gassing) into space does not go far. What would cause it to go anywhere? And, this is heresay but to the best of my knowledge much of that gas is presumed to re-incorporate on contact with an (amorphous) ice surface. That would explain how Saturn maintains ice rings made of sand & gravel sized particles. Of course things change as solar radiation comes into play.

Now that ISS has a porch, we can fool with water out there. Been looking forward to this.