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A team of scientists recently claimed that the mix of methane, carbon and lightning in Saturn's atmosphere is causing diamonds to be forged in the planet's atmosphere. These diamonds would be around a centimetre in diameter, but could range in size based on the availability of carbon at the time of the diamond's formation. The new study estimates that there are more than 1,000 tons of diamonds being created every year on Saturn. Mona Delitsky of California Speciality Engineering in Flintridge, and Kevin Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, claimed that it is possible. Saturn's atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen & methane, but when storms crop up, the lightning fries the methane, producing pure hydrogen and burnt carbon, a.k.a. soot. As the clouds of soot fall towards the planet, they clump together forming graphite, and as the pressure builds up closer to the planet's core, that graphite is compressed into pure diamond, thus literally raining diamonds on Saturn. The scientists think the same thing might be happening on Jupiter too. Both scientist laying out their argument at American Astronomical Society's annual meetings in Division for Planetary Sciences in Denver, Colorado.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Denver )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=On Jupiter and Saturn, diamonds fall as rain )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Diamond Rain May Fill Skies of Jupiter and Saturn )〕 * Rough diamond The new findings have not been reviewed by peers, but according to few Planetary scientists its possible. Dr. Raymond Jeanloz said: ''The idea that there is a depth range within the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn within which carbon would be stable as diamond does seem sensible. says Professor Raymond Jeanloz, one of the member of the team who first predicted diamonds on Uranus and Neptune.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Professor Raymond Jeanloz )〕'' And given the large sizes of these planets, the amount of carbon (therefore diamond) that may be present is hardly negligible. ''Dr Nadine Nettelmann, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, said further more work was needed to understand whether carbon can form diamonds in an atmosphere which is rich in hydrogen and helium such as Saturn's'' ==The belief == In their scenario, lightning zaps molecules of methane in the upper atmospheres of Saturn and Jupiter, liberating carbon atoms. These atoms then stick onto each other, forming larger particles of carbon soot, which the Cassini spacecraft may have spotted in dark storm clouds on Saturn. As the soot particles slowly float down through ever-denser layers of gaseous and liquid hydrogen towards the planets' rocky cores, they experience ever greater pressures and temperatures. The soot is compressed into graphite, & then into solid diamonds before reaching a temperature of about 8,000 °C, when the diamond melts, forming liquid diamond raindrops. That diamond rain that forms on both planets is based on the methane levels and the high temperatures needed to form diamonds on both planets, which form at 3650 degrees Fahrenheit.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=A Case Study of the C/O Ratio of 55 Cancri )〕 ''People ask me - how can you really tell? It all boils down to the chemistry. And we think we're pretty certain.'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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