Space.com reveals the weirdness of water – neither ice, nor liquid, nor vapor – found on a faraway planet:
Astronomers have determined that the atmosphere of super-Earth Gliese 1214 b is likely water-rich. However, this exoplanet is no Earth twin. The high temperature and density of the planet give it an atmosphere that differs dramatically from Earth.
“As the temperature and pressure are so high, water is not in a usual form (vapor, liquid, or solid), but in an ionic or plasma form at the bottom the atmosphere — namely the interior — of Gliese 1214 b,” principle investigator Norio Narita of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan told SPACE.com by email.
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“At high pressure and high temperature, the behavior of water is quite different from that on the Earth,” Narita said. “At the bottom of the water-rich atmosphere of Gliese 1214 b, water should be a super-critical fluid.”