{"id":192699,"date":"2024-07-10T10:22:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/laser-tests-reveal-new-insights-into-key-mineral-for-super-earths"},"modified":"2024-07-10T10:22:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:22:50","slug":"laser-tests-reveal-new-insights-into-key-mineral-for-super-earths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/laser-tests-reveal-new-insights-into-key-mineral-for-super-earths","title":{"rendered":"Laser Tests reveal New Insights into Key Mineral for Super-Earths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/laser-tests-reveal-new-insights-into-key-mineral-for-super-earths2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have for the first time observed how atoms in magnesium oxide morph and melt under ultra-harsh conditions, providing new insights into this key mineral within Earth\u2019s mantle that is known to influence planet formation.<\/p>\n<p>High-energy laser experiments \u2014 which subjected tiny crystals of the mineral to the type of heat and pressure found deep inside a rocky planet\u2019s mantle \u2014 suggest the compound could be the earliest mineral to solidify out of magma oceans in forming \u201csuper-Earth\u201d exoplanets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMagnesium oxide could be the most important solid controlling the thermodynamics of young super-Earths,\u201d said June Wicks, an assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University who led the research. \u201cIf it has this very high melting temperature, it would be the first solid to crystallize when a hot, rocky planet starts to cool down and its interior separates into a core and a mantle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have for the first time observed how atoms in magnesium oxide morph and melt under ultra-harsh conditions, providing new insights into this key mineral within Earth\u2019s mantle that is known to influence planet formation. High-energy laser experiments \u2014 which subjected tiny crystals of the mineral to the type of heat and pressure found deep [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}