PARIS: It could be raining diamonds on planets in entire universe, scientists suggested. 

Diamonds- Photo credit © pixabay


Scientists had previously given theory that extremely high pressure and temperatures turn hydrogen and carbon into solid diamonds, a form of carbon, thousands of miles underneath the surface of the ice giants.

Now an advanced research, published in Science Advances, also inserted oxygen into the mix, finding that “diamond rain” could be more common and wide than claims.


Ice giants like Neptune and Uranus are considered to be the most common form of planets outside our Solar System, which means diamond rain could be possible across the universe because of planets compositions.


A physicist at Germany’s HZDR research laboratory and one of the study’s authors, said that diamond precipitation on other parts of universe was quite different to rain on Earth.


Under the surface of the planets is claimed that there is a “hot, dense liquid”, where the diamonds form and gradually sink down to the rocky Earth-size cores more than 10,000 kilometres below, he added.


There fallen diamonds could create vast layers that span “hundreds of kilometres or even more.

Photo credit © pixabay


While these diamonds might not be shining or glittering and shaped like a “a nice gem on a ring”, he said they were formed via similar forces as on Earth.


For duplicating and confirming the process, the research team found the necessary mixture of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in a readily  available source — PET plastic, which is used for food packaging and bottles.


Researcher Kraus said that while they used very clean PET plastic, “in principle the experiment should work with Coca-Cola bottles”.


The team then applied a high-powered optical laser (monochromatic light) on the plastic at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California.


“Very, very short X-ray flashes of very high brightness” allowed them to watch the process of nanodiamonds — tiny diamonds too small to see with the naked eye — as they were forming, Kraus said.


“The oxygen that is present in large percentage on those planets facilitate to suck away the hydrogen atoms from the carbon, so it’s actually easier for those diamonds to come into exist,” he added.


– A New way to make nanodiamonds


The experiment could give signal towards a new way to produce nanodiamonds, which have a wide and increasing domain of applications including drug processes, medical censors, non-invasive surgery and quantum based electronics.


“The current way use to produce nanodiamonds  is by taking a bunch of carbon (diamond) and blowing it up with explosives,” said SLAC scientist and study co-author Benjamin Ofori-Okai.


Laser usage could offer a cleaner and easily controlled method to produce nanodiamond.


Although, The diamond rain study remains hypothetical ( yet an idea) because little is known about Uranus and Neptune, the most giant and distant planets in our Solar System.


Only a single spacecraft — NASA’s Voyager 2 in the 1980s — has flown past the two ice containing giants, and the data it sent back is still being used in research and studies.


But a NASA group has outlined a potential new mission to these planets, expectedly, launching next decade.


That would be obviously fascinating and fantastic!