Hot Black Ice: Unlocking Neptune's Magnetic Mystery

• Neptune's magnetic field is unusually tilted and off-center, unlike Earth's, puzzling scientists for decades.
• A bizarre form of water ice, called 'hot black ice' or superionic ice, is proposed as the solution to this mystery.
• Hot black ice forms under extreme pressures and temperatures deep inside Neptune, where oxygen atoms form a lattice and hydrogen atoms flow freely, conducting electricity.
• Scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and other labs are recreating superionic ice using diamond anvils and powerful lasers to mimic planetary conditions.
• The chaotic flow of electrically charged hydrogen particles within this superionic ice could naturally generate Neptune's tilted and offset magnetic field.

Why It Matters: Hot black ice, a superionic form of water, may explain Neptune's unusual magnetic field.