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Pterodactyl_midnight t1_j77yig2 wrote

“To find the loosely structured, Goldilocks-density ice, the team shook ordinary water ice in a jar crammed with steel balls, cooled to about -376 degrees Fahrenheit (-200 Celsius.) The method is called ball milling and is a way of breaking up molecules using mechanical forces. The principle is simple: As the balls crash against the ice, the latter is pulverized. As a result, MDA looks like white powder; though it is a solid, it has the molecular composition of liquid water.”

“MDA had a final quirk: When the material recrystallized into ordinary water ice, it released a large amount of heat. The researchers believe the discovery could have geophysical implications for ice on the surfaces of frozen moons like Europa, to which NASA is scheduled to launch an orbiter in 2024.”

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Kimorin t1_j78fr02 wrote

why does it just sound like they made crushed ice? lol

also if it's the most common type of ice in space, how can we just discover it now?

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tomistruth t1_j78u2hz wrote

Because you don't get funding if you call it crushed ice.

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Half_Man1 t1_j79lucv wrote

It’s literally not crushed ice.

Crushed ice is just small bits of crystalline ice.

This isn’t crystalline at all. It’s amorphous. So rather than the molecules lining up in a repeat unit like nice little toy soldiers, they’re all over the place like flash mob on pcp.

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Pterodactyl_midnight t1_j7edb6n wrote

Saying it’s “crushed ice” makes these scientists sound like bartenders.

Yes, It is literally “crushed ice,” the same way playing video games is just electrons moving around. Using reductionist language detracts from the true meaning.

It’s solid ice with liquid structure. That’s a big deal. This is extremely rare on Earth, so being able to create & study it in a lab can give us more insight into how matter works off planet.

Not only water, but other transformations of matter in the universe. It’s another step toward understanding the cosmos and y’all are thinking they want funding for Mojitos. Idiocracy continues.

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Half_Man1 t1_j79mm0l wrote

It’s different from regular ice. It doesn’t have crystalline structure like you can find in all other ice forms on Earth.

In space, it could flash freeze under a low pressure and at a faster rate possible than normally achievable in a lab.

Normally water has to crystallize as it becomes solid. The liquid gets cold enough and you have crystals nucleate out and then all the rest of the molecules will fall in line over time. It’s pretty common to see online people mess with this thermodynamic process and make “flash freezing” water where basically the first crystal just hasn’t nucleated yet, since it needs a little kinetic push. So it stays a liquid until suddenly boom one crystal nucleates out it immediately freezes.

This ice is like there is no crystal that nucleates, and the water just… freezes anyway. Which is not a stable state thermodynamically speaking.

It’s like forcing all these molecules in a horribly close and weird arrangement and just keeping them there.

Crushed ice is just crushed ice. Idk where you’re getting that from.

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Kimorin t1_j79mxap wrote

>The method is called ball milling and is a way of breaking up molecules using mechanical forces. The principle is simple: As the balls crash against the ice, the latter is pulverized. As a result, MDA looks like white powder

it's this ^

but thanks for the explanation

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thisplacemakesmeangr t1_j7b05if wrote

It is regular ice. We just have the gravity/heat assisted version

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Half_Man1 t1_j7b6qvc wrote

At this point, this is a silly semantic debate over what counts at “regular”.

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thisplacemakesmeangr t1_j7b8lsj wrote

I'd argue that the definition of regular is by total amount in the universe, you'd argue that there's no people out there to give a reference for regular, then we'd get coffee. Speed run

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Zetavu t1_j7beced wrote

How much space ice have we collected and examines in space itself? Not much at all. We've sent a probe to a comet, have probes looking at potential ice on mars, everything else is satellites scanning or telescopes. Those look at chemical structure, not crystalline structure.

That said, water RELEASES heat when turning to ice, you know, phase change - http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/fall16/atmo336s2/lectures/sec1/water.html it releases 80 cal/g to freeze, why is the article (or rather whoever put up the quote at the top) saying it needs to absorb thermal energy to freeze? This is why when you have a freak frost, you water plants and roses, as water freezes it releases energy which insulates plants and protects them from damage. That quote at the top about thermal energy sounds reversed and is not in the linked article, and I have not read the complete article since its behind a paywall, but someone needs to call BS on that statement or clarify it.

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Half_Man1 t1_j79lld8 wrote

That’s so cool that this exists, but it’s not surprising crystallization releases heat. That’s an exothermic process.

Makes me think of amorphous metals.

Haven’t looked at those things though since a material science recruitment demo where we bounced a rubber ball off one. (Amorphous structure absorbs less kinetic energy than a crystalline one so you get way more bounce off an amorphous metal surface than a crystalline one, which looks real weird)

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