Study of liquid hydrogen provides important data for planetary models
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 09:09
in Astronomy & Space
Using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH, researchers took a sneak peek deep into the lower atmospheric layers of giant gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. The observations of the team around lead author Dr. Ulf Zastrau from the University of Jena reveal how liquid hydrogen becomes a plasma, and provide information on the material's thermal conductivity and its internal energy exchange, which are important ingredients for planetary models. The scientists present their experiments in Friday's issue of the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.