IANS
MOSCOW, JANUARY 3
“Forbidden” substances can increase heat transfer rates and strengthen magnetic fields on massive Earth-like planets that may eventually help harbour living organisms, scientists say.
Super-Earths are planets with a solid surface mass several times greater than the mass of the Earth.
Using mathematical models, scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) “looked” into the interior of super-Earths and discovered that they may contain compounds that are forbidden by the classical rules of chemistry.
Earth-like planets consist of a thin silicate crust, a silicate-oxide mantle -- which makes up approximately 7/8 of the Earth’s volume and consists more than 90 percent of silicates and magnesium oxide -- and an iron core.
“We can say that magnesium, oxygen and silicon form the basis of chemistry on Earth and on Earth-like planets,” said Artem Oganov, head of the MIPT laboratory of computer design. The Mg-Si-O system is the major Earth and rocky planet-forming system. In the latest paper, the researchers attempted to find out which compounds may be formed by silicon, oxygen and magnesium at high pressures.
Using a novel algorithm, the researchers investigated various structural compositions of Mg-Si-O that may occur at pressures ranging from five to 30 million atmospheres.
