Washington, September 24 : In a bid to determine the melting temperature of ice in high atmospheric pressures, scientists have found a sharp increase in the melting curves, which opens up the possibility that water exists as a solid in the deep interior of planets such as Neptune, Uranus and Earth.
Through first-principle molecular dynamics simulations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists, together with University of California, Davis collaborators, used a two-phase approach to determine the melting temperature of ice VII (a high-pressure phase of ice) in pressures ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 atmospheres.
For pressures between 100,000 and 400,000 atmospheres, the team, led by Eric Schwegler, found that ice melts as a molecular solid.