Skoltech scientists and their Chinese colleagues have determined the conditions that enable the existence of a very peculiar ion. Dubbed aquodiium, it can be conceptualized as an ordinary neutral molecule of water with two additional protons stuck to it, resulting in a net double positive charge.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2’); });The team suggests that the ion could be stable in the interior of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, and if so, it must play a part in the mechanism that gives rise to these planets’ unusual magnetic fields.