Actually, the article contributes to a common misuse of language.
What we call “water” is really liquid water.
Water, like just about all other compounds and elements, is found in three phases: solid, liquid, gas; depending on temperature and pressure.
But ice, water vapor and liquid water are all three H2O, and are equally water.
Water vapor doesn’t condense into water, it already IS water. It just goes from the gas phase to the liquid phase.
Yes, correct. As soon as I clicked 'post," I was afraid somebody would call me on that, lol.
My understanding is that, as this material flows off the surface of the star, it's not water at all, but just the raw omponents of water, O2 and hydrogen, plus a lot of other things, of course. It is this material that condenses as it cools and water forms out of the condensate.
I don't know... the article mentions condensing, so I'm just trying to work that into my picture of things (while freely stressing that I'm not a scientist at all... my background is math first, physics second and, lastly -- way, way lastly -- chemistry), so if this isn't correct, please do correct me. I would never question an expert in a field in which I had no expertise whatsoever, but the science haters out there have no such qualms.
>> After tracing the paths of these atoms, the team concluded that water forms on the star, where temperatures are a few thousand degrees Celsius. But once the droplets... <<
The article is poorly written:
Gas droplets?
Or liquid droplets at “a few thousand degrees Celsius”?
>> After tracing the paths of these atoms, the team concluded that water forms on the star, where temperatures are a few thousand degrees Celsius. But once the droplets... <<
The article is poorly written:
Gas droplets?
Or liquid droplets at “a few thousand degrees Celsius”?
Also:
>> Once the hot gases hit the much cooler surrounding material—at about 5,000 times the distance from the sun to Earth—they decelerate, creating a shock front where the gases cool down rapidly, condense, and reform as water, Kristensen said. <<
Here, the author seems to refer to “liquid water” as “water.”