Lab Recreates Superionic Ice, Shedding Light on Ice Giants’ Cores

Researchers used diamond anvil cells and synchrotron X-rays to heat water to roughly 2,357 C and pressures up to 200 GPa, observing the predicted superionic ice (ice X) where oxygen forms a lattice and hydrogen ions move freely, matching theoretical models of ice giants’ interiors—though decades of work remain to confirm Neptune/Uranus mappings.