New understanding of the solidification of high-pressure ice found in 'ocean world' planets

A team of theorists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has solved a long-standing puzzle in the nucleation of a high-pressure phase of ice known as ice VII, which is believed to exist near the core of "ocean world" planets recently detected outside of the solar system, and has recently been discovered to exist within the Earth's mantle. The findings are described in a paper published today by Physical Review Letters.