On gas giants like Neptune and Uranus, the rain is made of Diamonds! Experiments at Berkeley indicate that diamonds may be hailing down on gas giants like Neptune and Uranus, as well as brown dwarfs, which are small and dim stars barely bigger than the largest giant gas planets. The high proportions of methane gas present on these planets can be turned into diamonds by the high temperatures and pressures found there. Once these diamonds form, they fall like raindrops or hailstones toward the center of the planet, said Laura Robin Benedetti, a graduate student in physics. It is not amazing that chemistry like this happens inside planets, its just that most people havent dealt with the chemical reactions that can occur. When the team at Berkeley reproduced these conditions inside a diamond anvil cell, diamond dust appeared. They did this by squeezing liquid methane to several hundred thousand times atmospheric pressure and then focusing a laser beam on the pressurized liquid. This heated it to approximately 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which produced the results. This is opening the door to study of the interesting types of chemical reactions taking place inside planets and brown dwarfs, Jeanloz said. Now that technology is able to reproduce the high pressures and temperatures found there, we are getting much better quality information on the chemical reactions taking place under these conditions.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 06:43:25 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015