When it comes to rainfall, the most out-of-place phenomenon that occurs on Earth is acid rain. However, icy giants such as planets Neptune and Uranus also experience rains which are much more dazzling and blinged up than our planet.
Uranus and Neptune are far-away planets, about which there is not much known. The planets are icy with little to no activity detected on either. However, in recent news, a dazzling phenomenon of diamond rains occurred on both these planets.
According to space experts, a constant “rainfall of diamonds” occur on these planets, which can intrigue the minds of all space enthusiast. This phenomenon mostly occurs in the outermost planets of the solar system, which are Neptune and Uranus.
Now, several researchers have suggested that the rains and hails in outer planets such as Neptune and Uranus might contain diamonds due to their atmosphere. These researchers also point toward a new way to produce tiny nanodiamonds for use on our own planet.
Reason behind diamond rains on Neptune and Uranus
The main reason behind the dazzling diamond rainfall in the planets on the outer part of the solar system is due to what these planets are made of. Uranus and Neptune are mainly made up of water, ammonia, and methane, giving them their “icy” appearance.
The temperatures in the mantle of these planets are also very high – as high as 7,000 K – and the pressure is as high as 6 million times that of Earth. The methane present in the atmosphere of the outer planets, when subjected to such high temperatures, changes its form.
They are usually compressed to small crystalline carbon fragments that form patterns like diamonds, resulting in diamond rains on Neptune and Uranus.
READ | ISRO-private partnerships can make India capture 8 percent of global space economy: Official
