Study finds diamond rain is a possibility on Uranus, Neptune, and thousands of exoplanets

There is a high possibility of diamonds raining on hundreds of exoplanets in space, a new experiment shows. These diamonds will be the result of extremely compressed carbon compounds present deep inside the core of exoplanets at extremely low temperatures.

The experiment was carried out at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, by Mungo Frost and his colleagues. As per Frost’s experiment, diamond rain may become a common phenomenon inside ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune.

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Earlier, many lab experiments have been carried out to study the conditions under which diamonds could form inside ice giants. Most of the experiments were based on a dynamic compression method. This is the first time that an experiment in this field has been conducted based on the static compression method.

Diamond rains on icy planets like Uranus and Neptune might become a common phenomenon

The experiment to study the conditions of compressed carbon on icy planets was performed using static compression but dynamic heating.

Frost’s team compressed polystyrene, the polymer that is used to make styrofoam. The team squeezed polystyrene between two diamonds and then bombarded it with pulses of X-ray light. The observations blew their minds.

The team observed that diamonds are gradually forming from the polystyrene at temperatures around 2200 degrees Celsius and pressures around 19 gigapascals, conditions which are similar to those in the interiors of Uranus and Neptune.

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These pressures are much lower than the pressures found to be necessary for diamond formation in earlier experiments using dynamic compression. The reaction also took longer than dynamic compression experiments, which might explain why such experiments haven’t picked up low-pressure diamond formation.

“It disagreed with established results and wasn’t what we expected to see, but it fit in nicely and sort of tied everything together,” says Frost. “It turns out that was all down to different timescales.”

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The team then concluded that diamond rain is a possibility on several of the smaller planets. Of the total 5600 confirmed exoplanets, the researchers said more than 1900 could have diamond rain.

It means that within the solar systems, diamonds could form at shallower depths than thought earlier. This could also change our understanding of the interiors of giant planets.

(With inputs from agencies)