• Question: Has solid nitrogen ever existed?

    Asked by kookieboi to Kate, Mark U, Tess, Yue on 15 May 2012.
    • Photo: Tess Newman

      Tess Newman answered on 15 May 2012:

      Apparently liquid nitrogen can be ‘easily converted to the solid by placing it in a vacuum chamber pumped by a rotary vacuum pump’ However, this requires lowering the temperature to −210 °C, so not easy for you or I to do!

      Under very very high pressure and temperature it can form a solid with a similar structure to that of a diamond.

      These states do not occur naturally on Earth with humans creating them, but elsewhere in the universe it is likely that nitrogen can exist in these forms

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