AFP
A scientific study suggested the formation of diamond rivers in the hollow of the planets Uranus and Neptune, following simulating a simple type of plastic to recreate the conditions that supposedly led to its existence on the two planets, according to a study published Friday.
Scientists hypothesized that enormous pressures transform hydrogen and carbon into diamonds, flowing thousands of kilometers below the gaseous surfaces of the two icy giants.
The study published in the journal “Science Advances” indicated that the friction of oxygen with this mixture facilitates the formation of diamonds.
‘A very special kind’
These rivers are probably of a very special kind, said Dominic Krause, a physicist from the German research laboratory “HZDR” and one of the authors of the study.
Krause told AFP that diamonds likely formed from a “hot, dense liquid”, before slowly flowing into the rocky region in the middle of the two planets, 10,000 kilometers below their surface. Then the liquid spreads out in layers “at a distance of hundreds of kilometers or more”.
Scientists from the “HZDR” laboratory, the University of Rostock in Germany and the French “Ecole Polytechnic” are trying to recreate the conditions in which diamond rivers are formed.
The scientists used a simple type of plastic that plays a role in mixing the ingredients necessary to form diamonds, which are carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the same type of plastic used in the manufacture of soft drink bottles. Then they exposed it to heat by using a powerful laser in the Slack Laboratory in Stanford, USA.
Production in the laboratory
“Laser production of nanodiamonds is a much cleaner and more easily controlled method than conventional ones,” said Benjamin Ofori-Okai, a Slack scientist and one of the study’s authors.
Krause also pointed out that the nanodiamonds that formed were seen through very simple X-rays, but of amazing density, and they are so small that it is impossible to see with the naked eye.
This discovery paves the way for a new method to produce nanodiamonds that are increasingly used in many fields including medical probes, unconventional surgery or quantitative processing techniques.
Scientists believe that the diamonds that form on these two planets may be larger than that of the component in tests carried out on Earth, and their size may be equivalent to millions of carats, according to a statement published with the study.
Oxygen “which is present in large quantities in these two planets” facilitated the formation of diamonds.
The industrial method for manufacturing nanodiamonds is to subject carbon-rich materials to very powerful explosions.
As for diamonds formed on Neptune and Uranus, the two farthest planets in the solar system, future space missions will have to wait to find out more information regarding it. Only one NASA probe, Voyager 2, has so far been sent to the two icy planets.
