Ice giant planets have more water volume than believed
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 11:31
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea of compressing water is foreign to our daily experience. Nevertheless, an accurate estimate of waters shrinking volume under the huge gravitational pressures of large planets is essential to astrophysicists trying to model the evolution of the universe. They need to assume how much space is taken up by water trapped under high density and pressure, deep inside a planet, to calculate how much is needed of other elements to flesh out the planets astronomical image.