> the team exposed nitrogen to extreme heat and pressure. It was pressed together between two diamonds to 1.4 million atmospheres of pressure, and over 4,000 °C (7,232 °F).
> The temperature at the inner core's surface is estimated to be approximately 5700 K (5430 °C or 9806 °F) ... The pressure in the Earth's inner core is slightly higher than it is at the boundary between the outer and inner cores: it ranges from about 330 to 360 gigapascals (3,300,000 to 3,600,000 atm)
There's probably even weirder states of nitrogen and other elements not that far away from us. Whole chemistries and semiconductor-ish effects we're guessing at. Fun!
This is why I love science, any field where “what happens if we squish it really really hard and then superheat it?” is answered by “let’s find out” is one that has my admiration.
Scientists the world over have my respect for what they do.
Indeed. This is way past the 'what happens if you put it in the microwave?' level of scientific enquiry, but yet it also has the same kind of feel to it in some way.
> The temperature at the inner core's surface is estimated to be approximately 5700 K (5430 °C or 9806 °F) ... The pressure in the Earth's inner core is slightly higher than it is at the boundary between the outer and inner cores: it ranges from about 330 to 360 gigapascals (3,300,000 to 3,600,000 atm)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_inner_core
There's probably even weirder states of nitrogen and other elements not that far away from us. Whole chemistries and semiconductor-ish effects we're guessing at. Fun!