A bizarre world of scorching hot ice shrouded in a steamy atmosphere may have been found, according to new observations. Characterising the Neptune-size planet is an important milestone on the way to detecting and characterising Earth-like planets that could harbour life.Astronomers have discovered more than 200 planets orbiting other stars, called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. Almost all of these were detected by the way their gravity makes their parent stars wobble. But this technique, called the radial velocity method, reveals very little about the planet except for the size of its orbit and an estimate of its mass.Astronomers can learn a lot more by watching "transits" of planets that pass in front of their parent stars as seen from Earth. Careful analysis of the dimming this causes can provide clues to the planet's composition and structure. But the brightness dips are small and difficult to detect for all but the largest planets.Now, astronomers have observed the smallest ever transiting planet. It has turned out to be a strange world, unlike anything seen before.

The planet, which orbits a small star located 30 light years from Earth called GJ 436, was actually discovered in 2004 using the radial velocity method. At that point, astronomers deduced that it was about as massive as Neptune.But now, a team led by Michael Gillon of Geneva University in Switzerland have observed the planet transiting its host star using a telescope at the Observatoire Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (OFXB) in Saint-Luc, Switzerland.They have been able to measure the planet's width, which provides clues to its composition and structure. It turns out to be about 50,000 kilometres wide, roughly four times the width of Earth and about the size of Neptune.

View: Full Article | Source: New Scientist

If it is scorching hot (depending on the definition of scorching), then it is not ice...

Not true. Ice is simply the solid phase of water. Ice only melts at 0^oC (32^oF) at one atmosphere. It's actual melting point is dependant on pressure too. If pressure decreases the the melting point drops. If the pressure increase the melting point rises. The pressure is believed to be so high on this planet that water can remain solid even at the high surface temperatures the planet experiences.

From the full article (source in the original post):

^ Wow, although the explanation makes perfect sense, it still almost surreal to the point that defies the law of nature.

Hot ice is a phenomenon that has been replicated before by scientists... although the pressure required is enormous.

lots of water out there

Wow. What a thought. Hot ice ! It boggles the mind as to how it doesn't melt under such heat.

It isn't defying the Laws of Nature (indeed it is exactly because they obey the Laws of Nature that we can predict and understand such things) It is, however, outside normal human experience.

Weirder things than this can happen under huge pressure. Pressures get so enormous deep inside Jupiter and Saturn that it is theorised that hydrogen becomes a solid metal. This happens at about 250,000 atmospheres.



Indeed. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Oxygen is fairly common too. As water is a fairly simple molecule it is not surprising that it is common.

that just one condition of one planet. imagining life on such planet is mind blowing.

Outside normal human experience is right. And the thought of a solid metal Hydrogen is also almost surreal. So, hot ice have been created in labs, I wonder if hydrogen turned to metal had ever been trialed?

Perhaps if you check out Here....
I don't fully understand the article well enough to quote it, but perhaps you could make more sense of it than me