First fleeting glimpse of metallic water

Researchers have created a transient version of metallic water – something that has been predicted to only exist only under the crushing pressure inside giant planets and stars – at very low pressure by doping it with electrons from a liquid alloy.

At intense pressures, water could become metallic as its electronic orbitals are literally crushed together. Such metallisation may help explain the magnetic fields of planets like Uranus and Neptune. But creating it on Earth has so far been impossible as it requires pressures currently inaccessible in the laboratory.