"It takes a tremendous amount of energy to make metallic hydrogen," Silvera explained. "And if you convert it back to molecular hydrogen, all that energy is released, so it would make it the most powerful rocket propellant known to man, and could revolutionize rocketry."

-Except for fission, fusion, and antimatter.

"Project Orion was a study of a spacecraft intended to be directly propelled by a series of explosions of atomic bombs behind the craft (nuclear pulse propulsion). Early versions of this vehicle were proposed to take off from the ground with significant associated nuclear fallout; later versions were presented for use only in space."

-But I didnt know about metastable and room temp superconductor. I wonder what else you could squeeze and store energy with?

I wonder if this could trigger a pure fusion bomb?

Diamonds are not stable at standard pressure and temperature. It might take millions of years, but diamonds left at room temperature and pressure eventually will revert to other forms of carbon. If metallic hydrogen is metastable under ordinary conditions, I wonder how long it would remain stable? What about at elevated temperatures or under strain?

" Recomobination of hydrogen from the metallic state would release 216 megajoules per kilogram; TNT only releases 4.2 megajoules per kilo"
http://up-ship.co...?p=33494

" Recomobination of hydrogen from the metallic state would release 216 megajoules per kilogram; TNT only releases 4.2 megajoules per kilo"
http://up-ship.co...?p=33494

" The hydrino reaction releases 50 MJ/mole"
" How many moles Hydrogen in 1 grams? The answer is 0.992122546977"

- I think thats (lots) more. But then does the universe really need more dark matter?

Diamonds are not stable at standard pressure and temperature. It might take millions of years, but diamonds left at room temperature and pressure eventually will revert to other forms of carbon. If metallic hydrogen is metastable under ordinary conditions, I wonder how long it would remain stable? What about at elevated temperatures or under strain?

FTA;
"One prediction that's very important is metallic hydrogen is predicted to be meta-stable," Silvera said. "That means if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remains a diamond when that pressure and heat is removed."

However, it is not stated what happened with their new creation once they removed the pressure...

if the hydrogen wires start on fire, it will be hot.

" Recomobination of hydrogen from the metallic state would release 216 megajoules per kilogram; TNT only releases 4.2 megajoules per kilo"

But since they're superconducting you need very little of it. Wires can be extremely thin because superconduction materials can convey currents on the order of 100k amps per square centimeter.

So can the same technique be used with different atoms? For instance, could metallic oxygen, or metallic helium be created, with I suspect novel properties? Perhaps even mixed atoms?

Metallic helium is theoretically possible. At low temperatures the pressure required is thought to be about an 3 orders of magnitude above what is reported here for hydrogen.
According to this:
http://www.pnas.o....extract
There might be some metallic helium (in a degenerate fluid-metallic state mixed with hydrogen) at Jupiters core.

Metallic oxygen has already been produced
https://en.wikipe...c_oxygen

Neither metallic helium nor metallic oxygen are metastable at ambient conditons as far as I'm aware.

Room tempuratore Superconductor material that is also a rocket fuel!!!!
that sounds like an explosive combination... throw in a few spark plugs...
and you and destroy the entire power grid with the same force as 1000000 TNT sticks of dynomite....

Might work on mars or outer space where there is no oxygen however....
in that case you don't need room temp. superconductor because its cold as hell...

Something about sparkyelectricity and rocket fuel being used in the same sentence....

metallic hydrogen....I'm sure its probably useful for starting nuclear reactions.....
if we hear about a lab somewhere going thermonulear for no reason we will know why...;-)

As far as power production with H2 goes, here is an interesting development

"Airbus Continues Engagement in Cold Fusion, Files Patents for 'Fusion Reactor' and 'Fusing Ultra-Dense Hydrogen'"

However, it is not stated what happened with their new creation once they removed the pressure...

Well what happens to diamond when you remove the pressure? Your quote says its similar to that.

Did you get that part where they compressed it to near 500 gigapascal, over 70 MILLION PSI? Just exactly how does one go about that on an industrial scale?

Your question implies impossibility. What makes YOU think its impossible?

Artificial diamonds were once thought impossible before they found an easy way to manufacture them.

However, it is not stated what happened with their new creation once they removed the pressure...

Well what happens to diamond when you remove the pressure? Your quote says its similar to that.

No, the Article says it is PREDICTED to be stable. What happened to their sample when they removed the pressure retraint?

So ten years ago when I read about metallic hydrogen being produced in diamond cell anvils it was 'fake news' as they only now did it?
Or is this 'fake news' as the process has been used for ten years but only now has pictures?
I was studying quantum entanglement five years before it was 'discovered' also. Quite a bit of controversy in those days, perhaps the 'discovery' was when they took a vote to agree on a press release.
Dissembling science to non science audiences by non science reporters is a step above political science in that it is not deliberately misleading, only incomplete.

http://www.nature...-1.21379

Sonhouse has a point. It will be way to costly to make to be used commercially. Also, near impossible to make large samples. They would have to make many small samples in parallel and you end up with something like sand. If you can melt it and reform it this isn't an issue, but that process could destabilize it back to gas.

No, the Article says it is PREDICTED to be stable. What happened to their sample when they removed the pressure retraint?

Why dont you do a little research beyond this pr news release and find out?

How do scientists answer questions such as these? They do experiments. When they say 'PREDICTED' it means they havent tried it yet. Why are you asking a question without an answer at the present??

It will be way to costly to make to be used commercially

Why? Because it sounds costly? How do you know it would be costly?

Like I say, Chemical vapor deposition doesnt take pressure and it is used to make diamonds.

One way to produce pressures in that range is by detonating certain explosives. This is another way diamonds are made.

Kinda snippy there, GoO...

From ARXIV;
"As of the writing of this article we are maintaining the first sample of the first element in
the form of solid metallic hydrogen at liquid nitrogen temperature in a cryostat. This valuable
sample may survive warming to room temperature and the DAC could be extracted from the
cryostat for greatly enhanced observation and further study. Another possibility is to cool to
liquid helium temperatures and slowly release the load to see if SMH is metastable. An
important future measurement is to study this metal for high temperature superconductivity."

Seems like they could have just tried it and then just made another sample if it didn't...

Sonhouse has a point. It will be way to costly to make to be used commercially. Also, near impossible to make large samples. They would have to make many small samples in parallel and you end up with something like sand. If you can melt it and reform it this isn't an issue, but that process could destabilize it back to gas.

"Something like sand" could be worked with...

If the stuff is metastable and can occur in nature could there be deposits of it within asteroids or metallic comets?

If the stuff is metastable and can occur in nature could there be deposits of it within asteroids or metallic comets?

As a matter of fact they think it makes up a fair part of the core of Jupiter, but there would have had to be another gas giant in the Solar System that broke up for there to be any asteroids or comets that had it in them. And we know that didn't happen.

I wasn't implying impossibility, I was asking if anyone had any idea just how to get that much pressure on an industrial scale. It's one thing to make metallic H2 on a diamond anvil a millimeter square, quite another making thousands of tons of it.

Finding out if you can do it at all is science. Figuring out how to do it as an industrial process is engineering. If it's really that big a deal, we'll figure it out.

I'd be interested in the details of the design of the diamond anvil cell that allowed it to exert almost twice what previous efforts could accomplish. It seems to me this is the real advance here.

Meanwhile, seems like these folks are as jealous as a bunch of beauty queens. Rather unseemly.

I'd be interested in the details of the design of the diamond anvil cell that allowed it to exert almost twice what previous efforts could accomplish. It seems to me this is the real advance here

Id be interested to know whether you were curious enough to read the sciencemag paper referenced at the bottom of the article?

Physicists doubt bold report of metallic hydrogen. According to this picture the compressed hydrogen could change into transparent electride instead. Without conductivity measurements the transparent sample remains indistinguishable from reflecting one. Wouldn't be possible to shine at sample with laser of different color from above and from bellow at least?

"Metallic"?? If it is metallic, then it will conduct electrons. Guide an electron stream through it

Try looking things up before offering opinions. If physicists are calling something metallic then obviously youre missing something yes?

Or have they not reduced the pressure on the anvil yet?

Why dont you read the paper instead of asking people to do it for you?

Or have they not reduced the pressure on the anvil yet?

They're keeping the sample very cold and under pressure:

As of the writing of this article we are maintaining the first sample of the first element in the form of solid metallic hydrogen at liquid nitrogen temperature in a cryostat.

This valuable sample may survive warming to room temperature and the DAC could be extracted from the cryostat for greatly enhanced observation and further study.

Another possibility is to cool to liquid helium temperatures and slowly release the load to see if SMH is metastable.

You should read the arXiv version their paper, if you don't have access to Science: https://arxiv.org...1634.pdf

The shininess may be something else entirely – like aluminium oxide, which is known to coat the diamonds that sit in the anvil and also becomes shiny under high pressure. Scientists have also cast doubt on the amount of pressure, that the paper claims to have pushed onto the hydrogen: the researchers shouldn't extrapolate the pressure by counting winding on the screws: they should measure it inside the diamond anvil.

One assumes you are one of these individuals engaged in unseemly whining.

The reasons the pressure cannot be directly measured are given in the paper, which you apparently still have not read.

Are you actually claiming that you can turn the crank on the anvil and not increase the pressure? Really? Really?

What exactly is turning the sapphire from transparent (as it must be for the results at 290 GPa, documented in the paper, to be seen) to reflective? Do you have any experimental data that shows that the sapphire becomes reflective under these circumstances? Or even any theoretical evidence to support this contention?

Shameful.

This comment has been removed by a moderator.

This comment has been removed by a moderator.