2024-01-11 03:49:00
Diamonds fallen on icy planets might be key to understanding their magnetic fields (NASA)
Not all planets rain water as it happens on Earth, in fact, this is the only one where this happens because it has liquid water on the surface. There were already records that certain planets rain precious stones. Such is the case of Neptune and Uranus, where there is a high amount of methane which in turn contains carbon. When this substance is crushed by the great pressures of its atmosphere, diamonds are formed and end up falling as precipitation.
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An international team of researchers led by specialists from the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California has gained new insights into the formation of diamond showers on icy planets such as Neptune and Uranus, using X-ray lasers. European XFEL in Schenefeld. The results, which were published in the journal Nature Astronomyprovide clues regarding the formation of the complex magnetic fields of these planets.
In previous work with X-ray lasers, scientists discovered that diamonds should form from carbon compounds inside large gas planets because of the high pressure there.
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These would then sink even deeper inside like a shower of precious stones from the upper layers. Thus, when it is very hot and the atmosphere is very dense, the pressure and high temperatures form diamonds that accumulate. They become even heavier and rain.
Diamond shower forms at lower pressures and temperatures than predicted in gas giants
A new experiment at the European XFEL has shown that the formation of diamonds from carbon compounds begins at lower pressures and temperatures than expected. For gaseous planets, this means that diamond rain is already forming at a shallower depth than previously thought and might therefore have a stronger influence on the formation of magnetic fields.
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In addition, diamond rain would also be possible on gaseous planets that are smaller than Neptune and Uranus and are called “mini-Neptunes.” These stars do not exist in our solar system, but they have been registered as exoplanets outside of it.
On its way from the outer to the inner layers of the planets, diamond rain can carry gas and ice, causing currents of energy-conducting frozen water. The currents of this type of conductive fluid act as a kind of dynamo through which the magnetic fields of the planets are formed.
Diamond formation on mini-Neptunes raises fascinating questions regarding worlds outside our system alone
The diamond rain probably influences the formation of the complex magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune, the specialists concluded in their paper.
The group of researchers used a plastic film made of polystyrene, a hydrocarbon compound, as a carbon source. Diamonds are formed from the sheet under very high pressure, a process that occurs in the same way as inside the planets and that can be reproduced in the European XFEL.
Using diamond cells and lasers, scientists generated the high pressure and temperature of more than 2,200 degrees Celsius that prevail inside the frozen gas giants. The stamp cells work like a mini vise in which the sample is squeezed between two diamonds. With the help of the XFEL’s X-ray pulses, the time, conditions and sequence of diamond formation in the stamp cell can be precisely observed.
The international working team has also included scientists from the European XFEL, the German research centers DESY in Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center in Dresden-Rossendorf, as well as other research institutions and universities from different countries. The European XFEL user consortium HIBEF, in which the research centers HZDR and DESY participate, contributed significantly to this work.
* Mungo Frost is a researcher in the High Energy Density Science Division of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, USA.
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