Neptune and Uranus are 17 and 15 times the mass of Earth, respectively, and their oceans are crushed by pressures millions of times more intense than the air pressure at Earth’s sea level. The scientists say the diamonds from Neptune could go up to millions of carats in weight unlike our much smaller diamonds here on Earth. But we can’t go to take them even if especially ladies should want this ! In a study published this week in the journal Nature Astrophysics, researchers say they were able to produce this “diamond rain” using fancy plastic and high-powered lasers. Polystyrene was used in the experiment, since its hydrogen and carbon compound mix is similar to the planet’s own chemical composition.
Tiny diamonds formed in one quadrillionth of a second. “When I saw the results of this latest experiment, it was one of the best moments of my scientific career,” lead author Dominik Kraus, a physicist at the Helmholtz Dresden-Rossendorf research center in Germany, told the media. Surprisingly, the findings in the study will help the industry on Earth improving the process of making diamonds. Using lasers may make production cleaner and easier to control. The actual artificial diamonds are created through explosives.
