American scientists estimate that every year the amount of diamonds falling on Saturn can reach up to a million kilograms.
Diamonds form from carbon under conditions of high temperature and pressure. On Earth, diamonds are born at around 160 km depth. Then, magma flows from the volcano brought the diamonds closer to the ground, according to Tech Insider. Diamonds form between the atmospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.
However, in the dense atmospheres of giant, high-gravity planets like Saturn and Jupiter, the high pressure and temperature can compress carbon in the air and create a shower of diamonds.
For years, scientists assumed that diamonds existed in abundance in the hearts of the smaller, lower-temperature gas planets Neptune and Uranus. They believe that the atmospheres of the two large gas planets, Saturn and Jupiter, are not suitable for creating diamonds.
The extreme pressure on Saturn condenses carbon into diamonds floating in a sea of methane and liquid hydrogen.
The above concept changed when researchers analyzed the atmospheric pressures and temperatures of Saturn and Jupiter, then modeled the carbon response. They concluded that diamond showers had most likely occurred on these two planets.
Diamonds form in large numbers in large areas where lightning storms are common on Saturn, according to Kevin Baines, a researcher at the University of Madison-Wisconsin and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA American Universe. Each year, the amount of diamonds falling on Saturn can reach nearly a million kilograms (the equivalent of 1,000 tons).
Jupiter and Saturn are two gas giant planets.
“Diamonds are starting to appear as methane. Violent storms over the two gas giants transform methane into soot. As the soot falls, the pressure on it increases. After falling about 1,000 miles, the soot turned into graphite,” Baines explained.
Graphite continues to decline. As the compound fell about 6,000 km and penetrated part of Saturn’s atmosphere, the extreme pressure condensed the carbon into diamonds floating in a sea of methane and liquid hydrogen.
According to Baines, after a fall of more than 30,000 km, the pressure and temperature prevent the diamonds from existing in hard form but melt into molten carbon.
Theo VnExpress
