Scientists from Harvard created for the first time on Earth metallic hydrogen, a new material on our planet that its existence was predicted before 80 years.
The team of Harvard researchers managed, as they claim, to compress hydrogen molecules with the help of synthetic diamonds, exerting enormous pressures of the order of 495 GPa (gigapascals), much greater than those exerted in centre of our planet and at a temperature slightly above absolute zero, -270 οC, or 5,5 Kelvin or -450 degrees Fahrenheit.
As scientists increased the pressure, they began to observe the translucency hydrogen to become black. Finally, at 5 pressure millions of times our own air pressure, hydrogen gained reflection. Researchers showed this phenomenon as evidence that hydrogen atoms had acquired a normal 3D structure, such as a metallic object, thus obtaining a physical state that was first predicted by physicists Hillard Huntington and Eugene Wignerin 1935.
The discovery and observation of a metallic form of hydrogen will be important not only because it will solve a long-standing scientific mystery, but also for the material's potential. The new material has almost zero resistance to electricity, that is, it is the best conductor of electricity that exists on our planet. The scientists say in their paper that published online in Science magazine yesterday, that metallic hydrogen will be "an important material for solving energy problems and may potentially revolutionize rocket technology as a powerful propellant".
In addition, such a material is metastable, which means that it will remain metallic as the pressure that forced it to change form from a gas to a solid is reduced to normal levels. The inchange but turning them from solid back to gas, through some other external influences will release enormous amounts of energy thus revolutionizing rocket technology.
It is believed that liquid metallic hydrogen is a basic component of the giant planets Zeus and Saturn, a theory the Juno spacecraft hopes to detect, according to NASA.
This is not the first time that scientists have claimed to have discovered metallic hydrogen. German scientists had also made a similar statement in 2012, which turned out to be untrue. This is why several physicists in various countries (USA, UK, France), according to "Nature", said they were not convinced at all that metallic hydrogen was actually created and reserved until more experiments were made.
