liquid metallic hydrogen: A form of hydrogen under high pressure that is a good electrical conductor.
lobate scarp: A curved cliff such as those found on Mercury.
liquid metallic hydrogen - (n.)
Hydrogen in a state of semi rigidity that can exist only under conditions of extremely high pressure, as in the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn.
liter - (n.) ...
Above this, there is a thicker liquid metallic hydrogen layer, followed by a layer of liquid hydrogen and helium, and in the outermost 1,000 km a gaseous atmosphere. Traces of various ices are also present.
Jupiter is thought to consist of a dense core with a mixture of elements, a surrounding layer of liquid metallic hydrogen with some helium, and an outer layer predominantly of molecular hydrogen.
Like Jupiter's interior, Saturn's consists of a rocky core, a liquid metallic hydrogen layer, and a molecular hydrogen layer. Traces of various ices have also been detected.
Their interiors most likely consist of liquid metallic hydrogen, a form of hydrogen distinguished by the fact that it conducts electricity. Both planets have magnetic fields oriented fairly close to their axes of rotation.
Uranus and Neptune ...
The pressure near the center is great enough to squeeze electrons from the hdyrogen atoms to make the liquid metallic hydrogen layer that is around 37,000 to 38,000 kilometers thick.
At a pressure of roughly two megabars and a temperature of about 6,000 K, the hydrogen is predicted to undergo a major phase transition to so-called liquid metallic hydrogen, which resembles a molten alkali metal such as lithium.
Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic hydrogen.
The outer mantle is liquid hydrogen; the inner mantle is liquid metallic hydrogen. The layers of extraordinarily-compressed hydrogen are in a state so extreme that it has never been produced on Earth.
Jupiter is also warm enough so that He should be miscible in the liquid metallic hydrogen. Because Saturn is less massive than Jupiter, the transition to metallic hydrogen may occur at r 0.45 .
Above that is a large layer of liquid metallic hydrogen. Above that, there is a layer of mainly liquid hydrogen.
Liquid Metallic Hydrogen
The inner layers of highly compressed hydrogen are in a state that has never been produced on the Earth. Normally, hydrogen does not conduct heat or electricity very well, which are defining characteristics for a metal.
Deep under Jupiter's clouds is a huge ocean of liquid metallic hydrogen. As Jupiter spins, the swirling liquid metal ocean creates the strongest magnetic field in the solar system.
Like Jupiter, Saturn also appears to have a core of liquid metallic hydrogen.
Planetary scientists believe that deep inside Neptune, pressure builds (and heat) until much of its formerly gaseous hydrogen turns into liquid metallic hydrogen, again like Jupiter and Saturn.
Saturn is a gaseous planet with a rocky core, a liquid metallic hydrogen layer above the core, and a molecular hydrogen layer above that. The hot, heavy, rocky core has a radius possibly three times the radius of the .
The bulk of Jupiter is fluid hydrogen in two forms or phases, liquid molecular hydrogen on top and liquid metallic hydrogen below; the latter phase exists where the pressure is high enough, say 3-4 million atmospheres.
Saturn's core may be rocky and about the size of the planet Earth. Above that hard core may be a liquid metallic hydrogen layer and a molecular hydrogen layer. Various ices also may be present.
Uranus (like Neptune) is very much similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn without the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope.
 See also: Planet, Metal, Hydrogen, Metallic hydrogen, Jupiter
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