Diamonds May Rain On Jupiter And Saturn, Where "Make It Rain" Literally Means Bling Falls From The Sky

New research suggests diamonds are scattered deep within Jupiter and Saturn.

Scientists have thought that both Uranus and Neptune may have diamonds, but nobody was sure whether the same was true for other planets. Now, apparently, it is.

Both Jupiter and Saturn harbor hidden treasure, scientists said at a Tuesday meeting in Denver, CO.

"We don't want to give people the impression that we have a Titanic-sized diamondberg floating around," planetary scientist Mona Delitsky of California Specialty Engineering said.

A "Titanic-sized diamondberg"? Um, awesome.

Rather, she said, "We're thinking they're more like something you can hold in your hand."

Fine by us.

Only the outer shell of the planets would have diamonds-within, they'd be so hot that the diamonds would melt into liquid diamonds. But that, in turn, might lead to diamond "rain", which could form small pools of liquid diamond. Or, like, oceans of diamond. Oceans.

Apparently, on other planets, "make it rain" isn't just a rapper thing-it actually rains diamonds.

Neptune and Uranus don't sport the diamond rain, though--lower temperatures mean the bling stays solid.

"Diamonds are forever on Uranus and Neptune, but not on Jupiter and Saturn," said Delitsky's colleague Kevin Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn originated from methane gas. During storms, lightning blasts apart the methane on Jupiter and Saturn, creating jet-black soot. As the soot sinks downward, Delitsky and Baines found, it turns into graphite.

And, from there, it follows the familiar carbon chain: the bits of graphite continue to the center of the planet, and growing pressure and temperature squeeze them into diamonds. But this transformation is different thn the ones on Earth-it takes place at 5,0000 degrees on Saturn and 7,000 on Jupiter.

The results were presented in a meeting of the Division of Planetary Science. While plausible, they're going to be kind of hard to verify, said Scott Edgington, who serves as deputy project scientist of NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which has orbited Saturn since 2004.

To find out, "we would have to go and drill for them," he says. "Who knows? Maybe this will give DeBeers the opportunity to send missions to Saturn to go find diamonds."

DeBeers might have the funds, if NASA doesn't.

What do you think of this? Would you want a diamond from Saturn? Sound off below!

Tags
world news
Join the Discussion

Latest Photo Gallery

Real Time Analytics