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LadyAstronomer
Bookworm
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 2951
Loc: Library of Congress
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The finding was a surprise, as scientists had assumed that high pressures and high temperatures would make metallization of elements such as helium more difficult, not easier, Jeanloz said. He and his colleagues had previously found that helium starts to have some metal-like qualities in experiments at extremely high pressure, but they have not yet been able to experiment with helium under the conditions found inside giant planets.
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Scientists recently discovered that hydrogen metalizes under lower temperatures and pressures than was previously appreciated. The dogma in the field was that the characteristics of hydrogen and helium were different enough that the two wouldn't mix inside giant gaseous planets, Jeanloz said. The researchers' findings, however, indicate that the two elements probably do mix, forming a metal alloy like brass, but liquid.
Full Press Release Here: Jupiter and Saturn full of liquid metal helium
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"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." -- Sir Isaac Newton
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TomC10
sage
Reged: 12/21/04
Posts: 239
Loc: Land of Enchantment
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There doesn't seem to be a version on arXiv. Does metalization correspond to a plasma phase transition? They mention that helium rain may be ruled out. And I believe a speculation about PPT is that it could create a barrier to convection from deep within the core. This would change the heat transfer rate and eliminate some models of Jupiter. For simple atoms the H/He equation of state is a real pain.
Hah!, this was an open access article at PNAS. It appears their model tends not to support a PPT density transition.
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Tom C
C10 NGT
Edited by TomC10 (08/07/08 10:04 PM)
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