Tyr-Ziu Saxnot
10-14-2013, 06:56 PM
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131009-diamonds-saturn-jupiter-planet-science-space/ Andrew Fazekas
National Geographic
Published October 9, 2013
It sounds like science fiction, but as much as 10 million tons of diamonds may be stored in Saturn and Jupiter, researchers announced this week.
Observational evidence of storms on Saturn that actively generate carbon particles, combined with new laboratory experiments and models that show how carbon behaves under extreme conditions, have led a pair of scientists to posit that both planets may offer stable environments for the formation of diamonds.
(Related: "Saturn's Rings Hit by Meteor Shower.")
"We now know the high temperature limit [8,000 Kelvin] for solid diamond, above which it melts. And we also now have more precise pressure [and] temperature structures for the interiors of Saturn and Jupiter," said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at University of Wisconsin–Madison and co-author of the study presented this week at a conference in Denver, Colorado.
"These two results together show us for the first time that solid diamonds can exist over large vertical regions of both planets."
Earlier theories included only Uranus and Neptune as suspected diamond producers. Scientists suggested that intense temperature and pressure on those planets may be able to convert atmospheric methane gas directly into diamonds, which rain down into their interiors.
Jupiter and Saturn, which are presumed to have much lower temperatures and less methane, have traditionally not been associated with the capacity to form these precious gems.
About half of one percent of Saturn's atmosphere is methane. Jupiter has only about 0.2 percent. On Uranus and Neptune, however, close to 15 percent of the atmosphere is made up of the gas.
Giant lightning storms spotted by Cassini spacecraft in the upper clouds of Saturn—similar storms have been seen on Jupiter—may be the key events that spark the production of diamonds, according to Baines.
Dark stormy regions seen on infrared images are thought to correspond to the breakup of methane molecules into carbon, most probably soot particles.
Once formed, the new theory states, noncrystalline carbon sinks down through the atmosphere until it reaches an altitude of similar density and is converted to graphite under the increasing pressure. The graphite continues its descent into the deeper depths of Saturn's atmosphere until pressure and temperature builds and converts the material into solid diamonds.
"This creates about a thousand tons of diamonds per year, and I estimate that in the 30,000-kilometer-thick diamond-containing layer, there are about 10 million tons of diamonds formed in this manner," said Baines. Will we ever mine for such? Is it worth it and would the quality be of a high enough grade to even matter?
National Geographic
Published October 9, 2013
It sounds like science fiction, but as much as 10 million tons of diamonds may be stored in Saturn and Jupiter, researchers announced this week.
Observational evidence of storms on Saturn that actively generate carbon particles, combined with new laboratory experiments and models that show how carbon behaves under extreme conditions, have led a pair of scientists to posit that both planets may offer stable environments for the formation of diamonds.
(Related: "Saturn's Rings Hit by Meteor Shower.")
"We now know the high temperature limit [8,000 Kelvin] for solid diamond, above which it melts. And we also now have more precise pressure [and] temperature structures for the interiors of Saturn and Jupiter," said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at University of Wisconsin–Madison and co-author of the study presented this week at a conference in Denver, Colorado.
"These two results together show us for the first time that solid diamonds can exist over large vertical regions of both planets."
Earlier theories included only Uranus and Neptune as suspected diamond producers. Scientists suggested that intense temperature and pressure on those planets may be able to convert atmospheric methane gas directly into diamonds, which rain down into their interiors.
Jupiter and Saturn, which are presumed to have much lower temperatures and less methane, have traditionally not been associated with the capacity to form these precious gems.
About half of one percent of Saturn's atmosphere is methane. Jupiter has only about 0.2 percent. On Uranus and Neptune, however, close to 15 percent of the atmosphere is made up of the gas.
Giant lightning storms spotted by Cassini spacecraft in the upper clouds of Saturn—similar storms have been seen on Jupiter—may be the key events that spark the production of diamonds, according to Baines.
Dark stormy regions seen on infrared images are thought to correspond to the breakup of methane molecules into carbon, most probably soot particles.
Once formed, the new theory states, noncrystalline carbon sinks down through the atmosphere until it reaches an altitude of similar density and is converted to graphite under the increasing pressure. The graphite continues its descent into the deeper depths of Saturn's atmosphere until pressure and temperature builds and converts the material into solid diamonds.
"This creates about a thousand tons of diamonds per year, and I estimate that in the 30,000-kilometer-thick diamond-containing layer, there are about 10 million tons of diamonds formed in this manner," said Baines. Will we ever mine for such? Is it worth it and would the quality be of a high enough grade to even matter?