Diamond rain, which is thought to occur deep within ice giant planets, may be more common than previously thought.
The researchers found that the presence of oxygen increases the possibility of diamond formation and that diamonds could form in low temperatures and pressures.
Diamonds can grow in a wide range of environments. There is a chance of diamond showers raining through the interiors of ice giants.
There is diamond rain on Neptune.
The formation of an exotic form of water that could help explain the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune has been found by the same experiments.
Some scientists theorize that ice giants are one of the most common types of planets outside the solar system.
The team of scientists included researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as well as from the HZDR and the University of Rostock.
According to the new research, diamonds on Neptune and Uranus could reach millions of carats in weight.
Diamonds can sink through ice layers if the ice giants have a solid surface. A thick diamond layer would form around the solid heart of the planet.
The team found that a phase of water called superionic water formed next to the diamonds.
At high temperatures and pressures, superionic water forms a crystal lattice with water breaking up with oxygen in order to form hydrogen nuclei.
The hydrogen nuclei have a positive charge which means they can conduct electric current. It's possible that the magnetic fields seen around Neptune are related to this.
The elements can change the conditions in which diamonds are forming on ice giants.
The situation inside ice giants is complicated because there are many chemicals to factor into the formation of diamonds.
The first time we saw diamond formation from a mixture was in the earlier paper. We wanted to know what effect these chemicals have.
The most recent iteration of the team's experiments used a plastic material composed of a mix of hydrogen and carbon, elements commonly found in ice giants.
It's familiar to us on Earth from its uses in packaging, bottles, and containers.
HZDR physicist and the University of Rostock professor Dominik Kraus said thatPET has a good balance between carbon, hydrogen, and Oxygen.
The team was able to see what was happening in the plastic with the help of the Linac Coherent Light Source.
They were able to measure the speed at which the atoms arranged themselves into diamond-shaped regions.
The scientists discovered that the diamond-shaped regions grew to scales of around a few nanometers in width because of the presence of oxygen in the PET.
Kraus said that the effect of the oxygen was to speed up the splitting of the carbon and hydrogen. It made it easier for the carbon atoms to combine.
The research could point the way to a new method of making diamonds with a size below 1 micrometer by hitting cheap plastic with a laser.
Benjamin Ofori-Oai, a scientist with the SLAC, said that the way to make a diamond is to take a bunch of carbon or diamond and blow it up with explosives. It is difficult to control the size and shape of the diamonds created. There is a different reactivity of the same species under high temperature and pressure.
Laser production could offer a cleaner and more easily controlled way to make diamonds. "If we can design ways to change reactivity, we can change how quickly it forms and how big it gets," he said.
Drug delivery, surgery, and medical sensors are just a few of the potential applications ofnanodiamonds. The implications of the scientists' findings could be more significant than those of the ice giants.
The scientists involved in this research will try to get a better picture of what is happening beneath the frozen atmospheres of these frigid worlds by using liquid samples containing chemicals like ammonia and water.
The fact that we can recreate these extreme conditions to see how they play out on very small scales is exciting. Adding oxygen makes us closer to seeing the full picture of these planetary processes, but there's still more work to be done.
It's a first step on the way to getting the most realistic mixture and seeing how these materials behave on other planets.
The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
We encourage you to follow us on social media:
All Rights Reserved © 2024
