Strange Alien World Made of "Hot Ice"

David Shiga writes "The smallest planet ever seen passing in front of its parent star is a strange world of scorching hot ice, astronomers say. The 22-Earth-mass planet has been known since 2004, but recent observations of it passing in front of its parent star have allowed them to learn much more about it. It appears to be made mostly of water, but not in liquid form. The planet orbits so close to its parent star that its surface is a broiling 300 C, keeping any water there in vapor form. Beneath the atmosphere, the water is even hotter, but is at such high pressure because of the planet's large mass that it stays in a solid, "hot ice" form."

Interesting.

[jshriverWVU]

Kinda OT, but wonder if hot ice can be made on earth in a controlled environment.

Re:Interesting.

[UbuntuDupe]

Since it's just a matter of increasing the pressure, yes, but don't think you can just reach inside the pressurized chamber and touch it.

Side note: this is vindication for all the times people riduculed me for responding to claims about water's boiling/melting point with "Wait -- what pressure are we talking about here?"

Philosophical question

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, we have heard that you can be in either:
        1. Hot water, or,
        2. on thin ice ,
But what should humanity make of being on or in HOT ICE?
 
NASA, please provide us with an answer. A solution to this dilemma cannot wait.

Re:

[slew]

According to this paper [sciencenews.org], if you are in hot ice, you'd be zapped or fried (maybe that's the same thing) ;^)

Re:

[Profane MuthaFucka]

These idiots have already shown us the way.

http://www.icyhotstunta.com/ [icyhotstunta.com]

Re:

[drasfr]

I bet to raise a few questions here on we can't touch it.

Ice/Solid water as we know it under 1 atmosphere is formed at 0C/32F...

Let's say that under 300 atmospheres, Ice/solid water can be formed at 100C/212F

Why can't we have have Ice/Solid water at 30C/86F under atmospheres where is somewhere between 1 and 300? assuming the 300 hypothesis for solid at 100C/212F?

That would allow touching it... assuming the pressure isn't too much... or maybe, that would happen if we suddently release the pressure? from 30

Re:

[bkr1_2k]

If you had enough pressure to keep it solid at 30C you'd probably crush your hand if you could put it in the chamber. If you released the pressure suddenly, odds are the reaction would be violent, sending boiling water and steam everywhere quickly until the system equalized.

Think of what happens if you create a pinhole in the barrier between two drastically different pressure systems and you'll have something similar to what would happen.

Re:

[AJWM]

FYI, the pressure at the bottom of the Marianas Trench is something over 1000 atm. The temperature is pretty cold -- a few degrees C. The water isn't solid.

We're talking much higher pressures here, the kind that forms diamonds.

Re:

[Amouth]

your also talking about moving water..

moving water doesn't freeze

also it isn't water it is water with alot of other things in it .. mainly alot of salt.. which lowers the required temp even more

that and it's moving

Re:

[eclectus]

The water at the bottom of the marianna's trench is very close to freezing, but in this case, the pressure is actually what keeps if from freezing. Water has a strange property where the liquid form can (at certain temp/pressures) have a greater density than the solid form (ice). This is why ice floats, and also what makes ice skates work (the pressure of the skate turns the top layer of ice into a thin film of water. If you compress ice at 0 degrees celsius it will turn into water, while compressing wat

Re:

[Control Group]

300 atmospheres is far too little pressure for the interesting forms of ice. To get the neat stuff, you need to be working with a couple hundred MPa, up to around 70 GPa. We're talking about 2000 atmospheres up to 7E5 atmospheres.

That being said, I have no idea what happens when you take the pressure off. But I imagine it would be pretty cool to see... ...as long as you weren't too close.

Re:

[fractalVisionz]

Actually, if you put water in a vacuum, it will start to boil, due to the decrease in pressure. Once near a full vacuum, the water will actually boil into ice, forming "hot" room temperature ice.

Re:

[Gilmoure]

Got into a verbal with Earth science teacher, in 9th grade (he was also wrestling coach). He insisted that one side of the moon was always dark. I even used the orrery to show that the 'darkside' of the moon also gets light. Man, he didn't like that one. Who knew a science geek could get a D in Earth Science? /in gym, got paired up with kid on the wrestling team. Ouch!

Re:

[Gilmoure]

No problem. Even running the orrery, with the little light bulb for the sun, showing him that all the moon gets bathed in light, as it rotates and revolves, he didn't get it. Or, he realized some smart ass 14 year old had just shown him up.

Re:Interesting.

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of when I was elementary school and started an argument with the dumbass teacher about the same thing. I don't remember what the exact question was but had something do to with the temperature and water/ice. The teacher could not conceive that it was possible to have water in solid form at a temperature higher than freezing.

And people wonder why I hated school.

Most people think the problem is ignorant teachers. This is only part of the problem. All teachers will be ignorant to some degree, just like every other person on the planet. No one can know everything.

The problem is the teachers that are ignorant, but convince themselves that they know more than the students in every case. They usually do this because the student is in class to learn, and they are in class to teach, therefore they believe the student must know less than them. Though this is almost always the case, they forget that it's actually quite common for some students to know more than them about some individual aspects of the subject matter.

You knew more than the teacher. He didn't believe you. This is not bad. Teachers can't take on faith every nut-job idea put forth from every know-it-all student. But all he had to do was say, "that's a very interesting idea. I'd love to read more about it if you can find some material on the subject." You're happy, because the teacher isn't treating you like you can't possibly know anything. He's happy, because it shuts you up about, "some wild idea." The school system is happy, because when you do show up with a source it might improve the curriculum (not likely in elementary school, but maybe in high school). And finally your parents and your educational agenda should be happy because looking for the source is likely to be a great learning opportunity.

"You're wrong," is a bad policy. "We're open to new ideas if you can show that they work," is almost always better.

Re:

[Maximum Prophet]

Wow, if I ever had a teacher use that method when I was in school, my attitude would have improved dramatically.

Re:Interesting.

[Gaijin42]

by definition you cannot have water in solid form at a temperature higher than freezing. That is what freezing means. The freezing point (as well as the boiling point) is not a fixed value though, and can change based on pressure and any impurities in the water. Technically your teacher was right, according to the words you and he were using.

Re:Interesting.

[someone1234]

Yes, iirc it was already done. See Sandia Z machine.

Re:Interesting.

[Control Group]

Short answer: yes [arstechnica.com].

Longer answer as gleaned from the link above if people don't want to bother clicking: yes; the Z-machine at Sandia is able (at least) to form Ice VII [wikipedia.org].

Obligatory Comment

[drinkypoo]

the Z-machine at Sandia is able (at least) to form Ice VII

As long as they don't devise the machine capable of making Ice IX, it's all good.

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

Is it just me or was that a reference to Cat's Cradle?

Re:

[MadUndergrad]

It was. Incidentally, there really is an ice IX, but it's not the lowest-energy state that the book's ice IX would have to be for it to act like it did.

Re:Interesting.

[eln]

the Z-machine at Sandia is able (at least) to form Ice VII.

Psh. If you ask me, the Ice series has gone downhill since Ice III. They really started phoning it in in Ice IV, and Ice V and VI were damn near unwatchable.

Re:

[Chris Mattern]

Are you kidding? Ice VI was possibly the best of the series, and Ice VII was a real breakthrough. Full 3-D and just amazing cutscenes. Ice X was too girly, though, and Ice X-2 was worse.

Chris Mattern

Re:

[Gilmoure]

I'm still looking forward to iIce X 10.5.

Re:Interesting.

[__aaclcg7560]

That item [chattem.com] is available at your local drug store. ;)

Re:

[www.themodernman.com]

Cool!

Plenty of you might might have seen this, but for those of you who haven't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw [youtube.com]

Cheers
Dan
Confidence With Women [themodernman.com]

Re:

[vought]

Kinda OT, but wonder if hot ice can be made on earth in a controlled environment.


Of course it can. Professor Hoenikker showed this very easily with Ice-nine.

In a way it is.

[WindBourne]

CO2/Methane in the ocean depths? It is under enough pressure that it is turned to ice. That is what W. and his team are hoping to mine shortly (and trade all the methane with CO2).

Re:

[malvidin]

At high temperatures and pressures necessary for supercritical water, it becomes too corrosive to be held in most materials. If I recall correctly, you need tungsten for the walls, and either diamond or corundum (sapphire) for any windows, and corundum needs to replaced periodically because it is corroded slowly.

I don't know of any techniques that will increase the temperature and pressure capacity of that apparatus.

Re:

[jshriverWVU]

Goldschläger. Although if you drink enough, I'd hardly call it a controlled environment.

LMAO!! reminds me of the college years. ;)

Hot Ice

[MillionthMonkey]

The inside of this planet is a solid core of vanilla ice cream at tremendous temperature and pressure. Although heated above its normal melting point, it is kept in a frozen solid state by the sheer mass of molten hot chocolate lying on top of it.

Re:

[Aqua_boy17]

So that's explains where Vanilla Ice really came from. That could explain some things...

Re:

[sconeu]

Is this a +1 Lucifer's Hammer reference?

Hot Fudge Sundae falls on a Tuesday this year!

Oh no! It's ice 9!

[jimstapleton]

We're doomed!

Re:

[garett_spencley]

Joe Satriani [www.last.fm] is coming to kill us ?

I always suspected he was a maniacal killer in disguise!

Re:

[Hoi Polloi]

We're safe as long as they don't retrieve any samples.

Re:

[reverseengineer]

There is an Ice-IX, but it only exists at a combination of very low temperature (less than 140K) and very high pressure (~300MPa). Raise the temperature, and there will be a conversion to another polymorph of ice (or to liquid water). This site [lsbu.ac.uk] has some good information on the phases of water, especially the ice polymorphs.

Strange ice

[Doctor Faustus]

If the pressure is keeping it solid, would it also keep it from forming the crystal structure that makes ice less dense than water? Normally, pressure (say, from an ice skate) turns ice briefly into liquid water.

I think, anyway... This is going back to my last chemistry class in 1994.

Re:

[HetMes]

This has been proven to be false. Being able to skate on ice has something to do with the upper crystal layer being of unique structure. No links, just Google it.

Re:

[LionMage]

Um, your temperature conversions are wrong. 4F = approx. -15.6C, and 20C = 68F. The conversion equations can be found many places, such as here [usatoday.com].

I also initially disbelieved your explanation, since my high school physics textbook unambiguously attributed the ice skating phenomenon to regelation [wikipedia.org], but further digging did turn up this [cam.ac.uk] little gem (and a related tidbit [umd.edu] showing a classic regelation experiment):

Beware: if you search for ice regelation on google, some web sites propagate the error that the mechani

Re:

[Control Group]

No, it wouldn't [wikipedia.org].

Of the fourteen types of water ice, only one (Ice Ih, which is also the form that is commonly found on Earth, though Ice Ic can occasionally be found in the upper atmosphere) is less dense than the liquid form. The others form at various temperatures and pressures, and are, in that their density is greater than liquid water, more normal than "common" ice.

Re:

[Control Group]

Sorry for the double post, but it occurs to me that I misinterpreted your question. If you mean, would the pressure prevent the ice from forming the specific crystal structure that makes ice less dense than water, the answer is yes. But then, so would the ambient temperature.

The pressure will not prevent the ice from forming a crystal structure (it will, in fact, cause the formation of such a structure), but that structure will be more dense than liquid water.

The latter is the answer to the question I thoug

Re:

[Doctor Faustus]

My instinct was that the pressure would force water into its densest possible form, and that wouldn't be the kind of ice we're familiar with here on earth. Yes, you answered that, thanks.

Re:

[jae471]

There is a problem with the UVA page -- Ice skates blades aren't flat in any dimension, so you get nowhere near 20cmx3mm in contact when gliding. A hockey skate probably has 8cm of length in contact, and a figure skate about 12cm. The blade itself is hollowed down the middle, like an upside-down U. A very shallow hollow will have a 7.5cm radius, a figure skate about 4-5cm, a normal hockey hollow is closer to 2.5cm, and a suicidally deep hollow has a 1cm radius (But its all a matter of personal preference,

Geothermal Ocean vents ~400 C

[us7892]

Life can exist in that environment. It does here on Earth.

http://science.enotes.com/earth-science/geothermal -deep-ocean-vents [enotes.com]

Not ice

[markov_chain]

The solid/liquid phase transition line for water moves toward lower temperatures as pressure goes up, so ice shouldn't be able to form at 300C regardless of pressure. Other than the title there is no mention of this "hot ice." The relevant quote mentions something more reasonable, namely, the supercritical fluid phase:

and it is not even clear if any of the water could be in liquid form, although deep inside where the pressure goes up, there could be a region where the water is in a quasi-liquid state. "It could pass through a strange region where it's not quite solid and not quite liquid," she says.

Re:Not ice

[jimstapleton]

I belive that is only applicable for Ice I[h] (normal ice). One property for such phase transition diagrams is that the solid is less dense than the liquid, rather than the reverse being true. There are several crystaline (and possibly non-crystaline?) forms of ice, which are more dense than water at the same pressure. These types of ice wouldn't match that phase diagram and could exist.

Re:

[markov_chain]

You're right, I guess I should have consulted the latest available phase diagram! Water is so strange.

Re:

[jimstapleton]

The problem isn't the latest phase diagram - every phase diagram easily obtainable, even the latest, would probably be for normal ice - the same that you have seen. You would need a special phase diagram showing the various types of ice (or at least one not noraml) to get this information.

Re:

[mybecq]

You would need a special phase diagram showing the various types of ice (or at least one not noraml) to get this information.

Such as something like this: http://www.chemicalogic.com/images/phase_diagram.g if [chemicalogic.com]

Re:

[Boronx]

Why are Ice II and IV left out of that diagram?

Re:

[Khashishi]

This one is better, and it's got crystal structures http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/phase.html [lsbu.ac.uk]

Re:Not ice

[loafula]

there are actually 14 different types of solid water. my guess is they're talking about Amorphous ice ..wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. Also, I believe the 300C temperature is that of the water vapour in the atmosphere.

Re:

[hcdejong]

there are actually 14 different types of solid water

And the Eskimos have names for all of them?

Re:

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Isn't not quite solid not quite liquid known as Jelly/Jello/Gel?

Re:

[farker haiku]

Maybe you should read the category labeled Exotic ice in the article..


But the high pressures in the planet's interior would compress the water so much that it would stay solid even at hundreds of degrees Celsius - the expected temperatures inside the planet. There are a variety of exotic 'hot ice' states possible in such conditions, with names like 'Ice VII' and 'Ice X'.

Of Course!

[pragma_x]

I always wondered where deep-fried ice-cream came from.

Oh shi...

[ebingo]

Must be hell frozen!

Re:

[goldaryn]

Must be hell frozen!

Maybe all those girls will sleep with you now..

Icy Hot sues planet

[192939495969798999]

this just in, the makers of Icy Hot sue the rogue planet for DMCA copyright infringement via slashdot's digital summary of the material known as 'hot ice'.

Finally makes sense...

[hal2814]

Finally, the "Hot Hail" in Flash Gordon makes sense. Ming was just showering us with some hot ice!

Sort of obvious, isn't it?

[Progman3K]

What I mean is that we know hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe, and that supernovas and previous-generation stars have been producing heavier elements (like oxygen) for a few billion years now, yet we are still surprised to find water everywhere.

I think it is obvious that we WILL find water everywhere...

water phase diagram

[excelsior_gr]

The critical point of water is at 647 K (374 C) and 22.1 MPa. This means that a temperature of 300 C is actually subcritical. No matter how high the pressure gets, water will NOT come in the supercritcal area of its phase diagram for that temperature. Moreover, due to the fact that water molecules form hydrogen bonds (this is why the density of ice is lower than the one of liquid water), the melting line of water goes towards lower temperatures with increasing pressure. Therefore, water at 300 C is liquid.

Ice Polymorphism

[Jabba_the_Butt]

A fantastic H2O Phase Diagram can be found here (http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/phase.html). At 300C (573 K) you can have ice; you just need a lot of pressure. That kind of pressure is in the several gigapascal range (x10^9 Pa, 1 GPa145,000 psi). Any ice that has a designation (e.g. Ice I, Ice Ih, Ice II, III, V, VII, X, etc.) has a set crystal structure. As you can see on the phase diagram you can have ice at very high temperatures if you have enough pressure. What is present on the planet mentioned in the article is strictly dependent on the pressure and temperature conditions there, which we do not really know.

I've GOT TO CALL the prom queen from HighSchool

[RembrandtX]

I have got to call the prom queen from highschool, because apparantly hell *CAN* freeze over.

Re:

[zippthorne]

Hell [wikipedia.org] freezes over just about every year. Your prom queen friend sure has some 'splainin' to do.

Gives me a new perception

[Tribbin]

Gives me a new perception of 'Hell is frozen over!'.

Correct me if I am wrong

[TheRealMindChild]

Correct me if I am wrong, please. When water molecules turn to ice as we know it, it becomes a hexagon structure of linked molecules. My impression is that water, under high pressure, while "solid", wouldn't form this structure. Could we really then call it "Ice"?

Re:

[Control Group]

Yes, we can. [wikipedia.org]

In fact, there are two types of ice that occur naturally on this planet, traditional hexagonal ice (Ice Ih) and ice with a cubic lattice (Ice Ic (I'll avoid the too-obvious "Ice Ic, baby" joke, here. You're welcome)).

According to that Wikipedia page, there are 14 different forms of ice which occur at varying temperatures and pressures. "Common" ice, Ice Ih, is, in fact, the odd one out in some respects - for example, it's the only one that is less dense than liquid water.

Vapour planet

[suv4x4]

Jack: Here's the new material "New planet made of vapour under pressure".

Chief: Damn it, that sounds dry. We need to get Bob, our marketing-slash-copywriter-slash-pr guy fix it a little.

Jack: But it...

Bob: Yep, ok.. Lemme think, vapour under pressure, how much pressure? So much that it's the same density as hard material

Jack: Lots of pressure, but to be hard it...

Bob: Good enough for me. So it's kinda like ice, isn't it.. "New planet made of hard vapour", wait.. I got it "New planet made of hot ice"!

Chief: Amazing!

Jack: It's totally not "ice" dude...

Bob: Whatever.. but it's still too pedestrian, "new planet". We gotta hint there's something more interesting on there, "alien planet", right.. "alien world". Sounds more epic. "Alien world made of hot ice!".

Chief: Perfect! We want to stress how odd all of this is. You know, not your run-of-the-mill hot ice planet though. Put "strange" in front, strange stuff is interesting.

Bob: "Strange alien world made of hot ice!"

Chief: Perfect!!! Start the presses.

Jack: Sigh...

Re:

[Control Group]

While amusing, your post is fairly inaccurate. "Hot ice" is a perfectly accurate description of the substance. Or at least, so says Wikipedia. [wikipedia.org] And, if you're not down with the Wiki, arstechnica [arstechnica.com] indicates that Nature also considers "hot ice" a legitimate term.

Ahh the memories

[GodfatherofSoul]

This reminds me of an "experiment" I did when I was 4 or 5. My mom would always tell me to use cold water when filling the ice tray. One day I decided to make hot ice by using hot water. Alas, I failed but it's good to know I was on to something!

Old and busted. Vonnegut covered it first.

[camusflage]

Vonnegut wrote about Ice-nine [wikipedia.org] in Cat's Cradle.

Oh, that was fictional??

The 22-Earth-mass planet

[SirJere]

The 22-Earth-mass planet

I'm not familiar with that unit, could I get that in empire states or blue whales?

damned article doesn't answer

[Khashishi]

What is the pressure we are talking about here? 10000 atm? 100000 atm?

Mmmmm

[Necrotica]

Hot ice, eh? Betcha it would go good in a spicy Bloody Mary.

no subject

[slapout]

"scorching hot ice"

This is just scientists making educated guesses with little information. I say we start sending probes out to get detailed information about what's there.

Wouldn't the real news be

[Kelz]

That there's water on another planet? And as such nearly proves that there is water on other planets, and possibly some are temperate enough to support life?

Re:Water?

[ArcherB]

No, we have confirmed the existence of water on other planets in our own solar system. Even Jupiter has water vapor in its clouds and Europa is covered in it. Even comets have a bunch of it. It's liquid water that's harder to come by. We're not so much looking for water as much as we are looking for water that can harbor life.

Re:

[zappepcs]

The methods that they use to determine the components of other planet's atmospheres is valid, though I don't know how accurate. I believe that it's incredibly cool that we can even hypothesize with any scientific ability as to the make up of other planets at this point. Also, I believe that we have found water ice on Mars already, just need to get a rover there to investigate it further.

One of the reasons for looking for water/ice on other planets (now that we can find them) is that water is believed to be

Re:

[AJWM]

We can see water ice on Mars with a good telescope. The permanent polar ice caps are water ice, they seasonally expand with carbon dioxide (dry) ice.

What's getting planetary scientists exciting is finding evidence of water away from the polar caps.

Re:Water?

[MightyMartian]

One word: spectroscopy.

Re:

[gstoddart]

One word: spectroscopy.

One more word: trampompoline :-P

(note to mods, this shouldn't detract from the fact that the parent is exactly correct in why we can infer the presence of water)

Cheers

Re:

[maxwell demon]

Aren't we still speculating whether water exists on other planets within our own solar system?

From the article (emphasize by me):
The inferred composition of the planet is very much like that of Neptune, which is also made mostly of ice, Pont says. "If you bring Neptune nearer to the Sun and it's heated outside to 300 C, that's exactly what you get," he told New Scientist.
I guess this answers your question.

Re:Water?

[j00r0m4nc3r]

I'm not a flat-earther

Burn the heretic!

Re:

[massivefoot]

In Soviet Russia, ice melts YOU!

Re:

[magarity]

In Soviet Russia, ice melts YOU!
 
I suppose technically this is correct since by its melting ice performs a cooling function. Be we don't really think ice as performing a melting function. Perhaps the more correct would be:
 
'On Faraway Planet, you cool off ice!'

Re:

[moxley]

In fascist America, these jokes are getting kinda old...... (although, every one in a while if the "ISR" joke is good enough I actually hear it in a Russian accent in my head...then I still laugh....)

Re:

[east coast]

OK, it isn't ice. 300 degree water under pressure is still just water.

It's a question of what ice really is. Is ice water at 0 degrees or less, or is ice simply a solid form of water? If you agree to the second condition then this is ice. It's all a matter of definition and conditions [wikipedia.org].

Just for the record: I am not a chemist.

Re:

[magarity]

It's a question of what ice really is. Is ice water at 0 degrees or less, or is ice simply a solid form of water?

You're thinking inside the box of the liquid form of H2O as the definitive substance just because that's how you typically encounter it. So instead think 'water' is the liquid state of H2O at whatever temp (and it can be far below 0C and still be liquid if its moving fast enough) and 'ice' is the solid version and 'vapor' is the gaseous state. The three states come about at different t

Re:

[east coast]

Now you'll see that your question's answer can only be the second choice.

Uh, yeah... that's what I said in a more roundabout way by presenting the phases concept (triple point).

Re:

[Have Brain Will Rent]

I look at all the space announcements as mere conjecture, I mean, all these astrophysicist guys are looking at is light waves in a telescope or radio waves right?

When you look at something (anything) in front of you all you are looking at is light waves. In fact the actual process of how your brain perceives that object in front of you is even more indirect than that!

Re:Not Ice

[pclminion]

Yeah. I bet you also disregard claims that you have a tumor in your brain because an MRI is just a bunch of nonsense. Hey, if they didn't CUT YOU OPEN and take a look, how can they really know?

If you don't understand something as basic as spectroscopic evidence, you are in no position to make claims about the veracity of real research.

Re:

[Gilmoure]

He was the villain that kicked Superman's ass.

Re:

[dreamchaser]

It's part of the propaganda for when we start invading other worlds. We'll just tell all the sheeple that there are illegal aliens on those planets that must be stopped.

A helpful tip for songwriters:

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't have anything worth saying, please don't write a song about it.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

You managed to annihilate heavy metal, country/western, and rap in one swipe.
Good work.

Now she's a real estate agent...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

"Ice" from American Gladiators

Now she's a real estate agent...
http://www.tv.com/tracking/viewer.html?sls_id=7350 &ref_type=104&ref_id=2723&tag=updates;title;0 [tv.com] ...so if you sign a buyer's agency you'll at least get her autograph.

Hotice: INRA bioweapon centre

[meringuoid]

Was I the only one who immediately remembered flying to the Hotice star system, there to raid the INRA bioweapons facility and steal the antidote to the mycoid weapon that had destroyed all the Thargoids' hyperdrives, and then heading back to Miackce to deliver it to the alien overlords and receive, in exchange for my betrayal of all humanity, the most powerful starship in the game?

... I probably was, wasn't I?