Posted on 07/29/2005 2:41:55 PM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
A phase diagram shows the preferred physical states of matter at different temperatures and pressure. Within each phase the material is uniform with respect to its chemical composition and physical state. At typical room temperatures and pressure (shown as an 'x' below) water is a liquid, but it becomes solid (i.e. ice) if its temperature is lowered below 273 K and gaseous (i.e. steam) if its temperature is raised above 373 K, at the same pressure. Each line represents a phase boundary and gives the conditions when two phases coexist. Here, a change in temperature or pressure may cause the phases to abruptly change from one to the other. Where three lines join, there is a 'triple point' when three phases coexist but may abruptly and totally change into each other given a change in temperature or pressure. Four lines cannot meet at a single point. A 'critical point' is where the properties of two phases become indistinguishable from each other. The phase diagram of water is complex,g having a number of triple points and one or possibly two critical points. Many of the crystalline forms may remain metastable in much of the low-temperature phase space at lower pressures.
No, the phase state is stable. The ice would sublimate slowly, but additional ice would accumulate from the atmosphere. It is cold enough that sublimation would be very slow.
Tempel-1 data is still being analyzed. Comet Near data is still being analyzed. It is going to be a while, maybe months.
In the last several years, NASA/JPL have had agreements with private researchers at universities, etc. to get almost "proprietary" rights to the raw data. They get their shot at making their discoveries before the data goes out to the world. I guess they don't want anyone finding "faces" and "pyramids" on Mars that their specialists overlooked.
http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=PSA&page=huygens
"Long-term Schedule
The delivery of the Huygens data to the PSA for internal validation and Peer Review is foreseen for mid 2005. The Huygens data will be made publicly available after a successful peer review most likely around June 2006."
Ice,that's exciting.
Right. The primary researchers have a contract giving them proprietary rights for a year anyway. I suspect that if they find something of commercial value they will hang onto that discovery until they can arrange funding to produce that value. In a sense they have property rights to the resources, which is strictly illegal under the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, but so long as the final intent is the benefit of all mankind they can get away with it.
Huygens was ESA, which plays by different rules. The various separate countries signed the 1967 Treaty, the EU did not, the ESA did not. Watch how this develops.
ROFL
I truly hope that pic sends PETA off the deep end...
I updated it to anger the feminists....
Good ideas for a Phoenix logo redesign LOL.
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