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Eugene

(61,807 posts)
Sat Aug 26, 2017, 12:13 AM Aug 2017

It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

Source: Washington Post

It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

By Sarah Kaplan August 25 at 7:00 AM

Consider this your daily reminder that the solar system is even more awesomely bonkers than you realized: On Uranus and Neptune, scientists forecast rain storms of solid diamonds.

The gems form in the hydrocarbon-rich oceans of slush that swath the gas giants' solid cores. Scientists have long speculated that the extreme pressures in this region might split those molecules into atoms of hydrogen and carbon, the latter of which then crystallize to form diamonds. These diamonds were thought to sink like rain through the ocean until they hit the solid core.

But no one could prove that this would really work — until now. In a study published this week in the journal Nature Astrophysics, researchers say they were able to produce this "diamond rain" using fancy plastic and high-powered lasers.

“Previously, researchers could only assume that the diamonds had formed,” lead author Dominik Kraus, a physicist at the Helmholtz Dresden-Rossendorf research center in Germany, told the magazine Cosmos. “When I saw the results of this latest experiment, it was one of the best moments of my scientific career.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/08/25/it-rains-solid-diamonds-on-uranus-and-neptune/

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It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune (Original Post) Eugene Aug 2017 OP
tell the trump clan - they will surely want to head there to clean up... NRaleighLiberal Aug 2017 #1
It rains diamonds on Uranus C_U_L8R Aug 2017 #2
DUzy! lastlib Aug 2017 #6
Absolutely fascinating! RestoreAmerica2020 Aug 2017 #3
Arthur C. Clarke postulated in one of his books... krispos42 Aug 2017 #4
2010: Odyssey II, I believe. lastlib Aug 2017 #7
Just one bucket MFM008 Aug 2017 #5

NRaleighLiberal

(60,006 posts)
1. tell the trump clan - they will surely want to head there to clean up...
Sat Aug 26, 2017, 12:18 AM
Aug 2017

and our problem is solved!

"Hey trumpie, there's diamonds on uranus!"

krispos42

(49,445 posts)
4. Arthur C. Clarke postulated in one of his books...
Sat Aug 26, 2017, 01:47 AM
Aug 2017

...that the core of Jupiter was an Earth-sized diamond.

Damn.

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