New Stage of Hydrogen May Reveal What the Conditions are like on Other Planets

Scientists may have gotten a glimpse of what life is like on other planets. Researchers have recreated an elusive form of the material that makes up much of giant planets in our solar system and the sun, which may tell scientists a bit more about what these places are like.

In this case, the researchers conducted experiments to examine a previously-unseen form of hydrogen. This form of hydrogen is thought to be found in the interiors of both Jupiter and Saturn. While researchers around the world have been trying for years to create this form of the element, known as the metallic state, scientists have been unable to.

The metallic and atomic form of hydrogen, formed at elevated pressures, was first theorized to exist about 80 years ago. Now, a new study uses a pair of diamonds to squeeze hydrogen molecules to record pressures while analyzing their behavior.

The researchers found that at pressures equivalent to 3.25 million times that of Earth's atmosphere, hydrogen entered a new solid phase, named phase V. The hydrogen actually started to show some interesting and unusual properties in this stage; its molecules began to separate into single atoms, while the atoms' electrons began to behave like those of a metal.

The newly found phase, however, is only the beginning of the molecular separation; higher pressures are still needed to create the pure atomic and metallic state predicted by the theory.

With that said, the researchers still need to conduct further study in order to learn a bit more about hydrogen. However, the new findings do show what some conditions may be like on large, gaseous planets.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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