Findings establish counterintuitive potential planet-forming
materials
A team of researchers led by Artem R. Oganov, a professor of
theoretical crystallography in the Department of Geosciences, has made a
startling prediction that challenges existing chemical models and current
understanding of planetary interiors — magnesium oxide, a major material in the
formation of planets, can exist in several different compositions. The team’s
findings, “Novel stable compounds in the Mg-O system under high pressure,” are
published in the online edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The
existence of these compounds — which are radically different from traditionally
known or expected materials — could have important implications.