The Planet Made of Water

When you think of a planet, you probably think of one like Earth: hard, rocky exterior. There are also planets of gas and ice type. BUT recently, scientists believe they have found a planet made of water!

This is an artist's rendition of the new planet, GJ 1214b. It's seen above orbiting it's star. GJ 1214b is 6.5 times the size of Earth and believe to be composed mostly of water.

But GJ 1214b isn't a water world in the sense that it's a big, splashing ocean. Scientist have formed the idea that the planet's interior is filled with a high pressured form of H2O; a solid form.

This is a picture of what they believe to be the composition of GJ 1214b. The planet's atmosphere  is said to be at least half water and it's probably found closer to the surface of the planet.

This has got to be one of the most incredible things I've seen in a while. Along with finding a new Earth-like planet, but a new TYPE of planet.

Sleeping Beauty

Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences have grown this flowering plant (Silene stenophylla) from tissue scraped from a fruit that was preserved in Siberia for more than 31,000 years.

According to scientists, this flower last bloomed when mammoths walked on Earth. It's the oldest flowering plant ever grown from reserved tissue.

The scientists that grew this plant found the fruit in a burrow that was believed to have been stuffed in by a squirrel around 31,800 years ago. Windblown silt had closed the entrance to the burrow, causing everything to be frozen inside and kept dry 38 meters under the ground.

When the scientists scraped the tissue from the fruit, they bathed it in nutrients and it grew into fertile plants with healthy seeds that sprouted in soil.

It's definitely a remarkable project. To know that something from 31,000 years ago is alive today is almost mind blowing. I can't wait to find out what scientist will bring back to life next (if they haven't done so already).

A Promising New Earth

Scientists have recently discovered a new "Super-Earth." It's been named Gliese 667C c (or GJ 667Cc). The signifigance of this new planet is that it's the closest discovered thus far to be Earth-like.

As seen in the picture above, GJ 667Cc is the 1st closest Super-Earth. It's followed by Gliese 370 b (HD 85512 b), Keppler-22 b, Gliese 581 d (GI 581 d), and Mars.


GJ 667C c is unlike the other 4 discoveries as it's well within its sun's "life-friendly zone," and it's the perfect size to host life.

In this picture, you can see the size comparison between the Earth, Mars, and GJ 667C c. GJ 667C c is atleast 4.5 Earth masses.


BUT this does not mean that GJ 667C c is habitable. Scientist are still missing many crucial pieces of information to decide whether it is possible for this planet to support life or not.


So what does this mean for us on Earth? It seems to me that we're one step closer to finding Earth's sister planet, especially with our advancements in technology.

The Art of Supercooling

Supercooling is the process of cooling water below its freezing point without it freezing. A liquid below its freezing point will crystallize by using a “crystal seed” or a nucleus to form the crystal around, but if the water is lacking a nucleus, the liquid will stay in that state even past its freezing point.

The process of supercooling can be rather simple, but it comes with many terms to know and understand. The first to know are phase changes. It's something quite elementary; we all learn about it at a young age. You have a solid, like ice, a liquid, like water, and a gas, like steam. You may think, “Oh, that's an easy one. Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.” Yes, that is true, but a lot of energy goes into making these phase changes. It takes 80 cal/gm (calories per gram) to transition from ice to water, and 640 cal/gm to go from that water to steam. That's a good amount of energy. 

The energy used to make these transitions are called the latent heat of fusion and the latent heat of vaporization. Heat of fusion is the energy required to change a gram of a substance from a solid to a liquid without changing its temperature. This energy will break down the solid bonds, but leaves energy to convert to a liquid state. Heat of vaporization is the energy required to change a gram of liquid into a gas. The energy breaks down the attractive forces and provides the extra energy necessary to expand the gas.

The phase change used in supercooling is freezing. Most liquids freeze by crystallization. This is a first-order thermodynamic phase transition. This means that, as long as solid and liquid coexist, the equilibrium temperature of the system remains constant and equal to the melting point. Crystallization occurs through two different steps: nucleation and crystal growth. Nucleation is the step when the molecules start to gather into clusters by arranging in a defined and periodic manner to define the crystal structure in which the crystal growth begins.

The terms above help to understand the concept of supercooling. Freezing point depression is the actual process of lowering the freezing point temperature of the liquid. The freezing point is lowered by adding another compound to it. The solution will have a lower freezing point than that of the pure solvent. An example of freezing point depression is the freezing point of seawater. It is lower than that of pure water. Because of the way freezing point works, it depends on the number of particles present, not the type of the particles present or their mass.

Freezing Point Depression

Freezing Point Depression


This article goes along with my first article for science fair. My project is going to be on supercooling.
As said before, supercooling is the process of water remaining as a liquid below the normal freezing point.

This is due to freezing point depression. Freezing point depression is when the freezing point of a liquid is lowered by adding a substance to it.

For example, sea water has a lower freezing point than pure water because of the added salt.

 This picture shows how the substances added to the water can hinder it from freezing.

Freezing Point Depression happens due to the number of particles present, not the amount there or the type of particles.

Super Cooling At Its Best

Super Cooling is Pretty Cool! 

 Supercooling (That cool thing in the video) is being able to cool liquid BELOW it's freezing point without it freezing. Cool, huh?
 Water freezes because it crystallizes on a nucleus type structure IN the water. Water that can be supercooled doesn't have this nucleus type structure, so it won't freeze below freezing point.

What causes the water to freeze?
It's through a process called homogeneous nucleation. It's where the nucleus mentioned above becomes frozen. In supercooling, it happens ABOVE the water, so it doesn't freeze.

Eventually, supercooling ceases to stop the freezing when the water is disturbed in some way. The water starts to form ice crystals, and then eventually starts to freeze completely.

 

This whole process of supercooling is pretty cool. I can't wait to finish researching it and then test it,


Science Fair