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Scientists Discover Trillions Of Planets Made Of Pure Diamond, This Is How It’s Possible

The universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it is stranger than you can imagine – the words of iconic astronomer Carl Sagan still ring true and will always be true till the end of time.

Till a few years ago, we were fascinated by the idea that cores of planets like Jupiter and Saturn were pure diamonds as big as the Earth, and then came the knowledge of raining diamonds on Uranus and Neptune.

Expect diamonds if the planet has silicon, carbon, and water

Now, another piece of mindblowing science fact says that there could be trillions of planets in the Universe that are made of pure diamond.

Researchers found that a material called silicon carbide, which is a very common thing to be found on carbon-rich planets – can easily turn into diamonds if put under heat and pressure in the presence of water.

They said that diamond planets would be very very rare, but the universe is so vast that even a rare number could be in trillions.

Why doesn’t Earth have diamonds?

On Earth, the diamonds are even rarer since our planet’s diamond content is only about 0.001% since our carbon-to-oxygen ratio is really low. For diamonds to form, a planet needs to have much more carbon than oxygen in it.

Scientists say that on diamond-rich planets, you could find diamonds in such abundance that they’ll be as common as ordinary rocks we see on Earth.

This is how scientists made diamonds

Image Credit: Science Springs

Scientists confirmed this by mixing silicon carbide with water and then placed it into a diamond-anvil cell which can compress the material to a high degree. Then they superheated the compressed material. The material turned into diamond and silica – showing that formation of diamonds on such planets is incredibly easy indeed.

Will there be life on diamond planets?

This kind of carbon-rich planets can exist only near the stars with a high carbon-to-oxygen ratio. Even the planets would lack oxygen, and that’s why their atmosphere will be full of methane, ammonia, and other gases which don’t have much oxygen. Diamond planets will also be very hard so they won’t have any geological activity – which means the temperature of these planets will not be regulated and methane will cause a severe greenhouse effect.

The planets will be not fit for life in any way due to high temperatures, hard surface, lack of water and oxygen.

 

 

Featured Image Courtesy: Kaleido

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