It would accumulate new layers as it falls when it touches other isolated carbon atoms or diamonds, allowing individual diamond blocks to reach a size meters in diameter. Clusters of isolated carbon atoms would then be squeezed into a diamond structure, which is the most stable form of carbon under such conditions.ĭiamond is denser than the methane, ammonia, and water left in the ice layer, so the carbon crystal would start to sink toward the planet’s core. Marvin Ross of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory first introduced the diamond-rain idea in a 1981 article in Nature titled, “The Ice Layer of Uranus and Neptune-Diamonds in the Sky?” He suggested that the carbon and hydrogen atoms of hydrocarbons such as methane separate at the high pressures and high temperatures inside the ice giant planets. Scientists have modeled exotic processes-including diamond formation-taking place between the compounds deep within the ice layers. Under such heat and pressures, ammonia and methane are chemically reactive. Despite the high temperature, pressures more than one million times greater than the atmospheric pressure on Earth compress the so-called ices into a hot, dense fluid. Simulations suggest that gravity compresses the “ices” in this middle layer to high densities, and the internal heat raises the internal temperatures to several thousand kelvins. On Neptune, for example, beneath a hydrogen-helium atmosphere that is 3,000 kilometers thick lies an ice layer that is 17,500 kilometers thick. However, it is the “ice” in the deep middle layers that really shapes their properties. So there’s a growing sense of urgency to explore Neptune and Uranus -both to better understand where and how planetary systems form and also to refine our ideas about where to look for planets that can sustain life. The outermost planets also seem to bear scars that could tell us a lot about the formation of our own Solar System. The number of planets similar in size to Uranus and Neptune that have been found in the galaxy is roughly nine times greater than the number of much larger planets similar in size to Jupiter and Saturn. It limits our understanding of the Solar System and the galaxy, because planets of this size have turned out to be extremely common in the Milky Way. Only a single space mission, Voyager 2, has flown by to reveal some of their secrets, so diamond rain has remained only a hypothesis.īeyond the lingering mystery of the diamond rain, there’s a big loss in our failure to study Uranus and Neptune inside and out. ![]() The outer planets of our Solar System are hard to study, however. ![]() Deep within Neptune and Uranus, it rains diamonds-or so astronomers and physicists have suspected for nearly 40 years.
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