Published on August 29, 2017
Diamond rain could be “the most common precipitation in the Solar System” the authors say
Diamonds big enough to be worn by Hollywood film stars could be raining down on Neptune and Uranus, US scientists have calculated.
New atmospheric data for the gas giants indicates that carbon is abundant in its dazzling crystal form, they say.
Lightning storms turn methane into soot (carbon) which as it falls hardens into chunks of graphite and then diamond.
These diamond “hail stones” eventually melt into a liquid sea in the planets’ hot cores, they told a conference.
