Now, the brand new analysis revealed in Science Advances reveals that “diamond rain” could also be extra widespread than as soon as thought, due to the consequences of oxygen.

Replicating the diamond rain course of

Ice giants are regarded as the most typical sort of planet outdoors of our photo voltaic system. Which means, primarily based on the brand new analysis, diamond rain could also be occurring all through the universe on a a lot bigger scale than beforehand thought.

In line with Dominik Kraus, a physicist at Germany’s HZDR analysis lab and one of many examine’s authors, diamond rain is a really totally different course of from common precipitation on Earth. Kraus and a workforce replicated this course of within the lab utilizing PET plastic, which has the required mixture of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

The workforce targeted a high-powered optical laser on the plastic on the SLAC Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory in California. “Very, very brief X-ray flashes of unbelievable brightness” allowed them to copy and observe the method of nanodiamond formation, in accordance with Kraus. Nanodiamonds are tiny diamonds too small to see with the bare eye.

“The oxygen that’s current in massive quantities on these planets actually helps suck away the hydrogen atoms from the carbon, so it is really simpler for these diamonds to type,” he continued.