Astronomers have long been searching for liquid water on other
planets,
planets that perhaps one day humankind might colonize.
But now experts say on many planets,
it's less likely they rain liquid water but instead literally
rain diamonds from the sky.
This is similar to something scientists have suspected could be
the case on ice giants in our solar system before,
yet they believed it might happen thousands of miles below
the planet's surface.
However, a new study suggests that if oxygen is present
in the atmosphere,
the same process could be happening above the planet as
well.
Scientists use plastic specifically. PET as their oxygen source,
they fired very, very short X-ray flashes of incredible brightness
at the plastic,
producing with their calling nano diamonds,
or diamonds so tiny they can't be seen without a
microscope.
And they say this clearly shows the conditions on ice
giants,
which are thought to be the most prevalent type of
planet in the universe,
are much more conducive to the formation of diamonds,
meaning diamond rain is perhaps even more common in the
universe than liquid water rain.
And the researchers say this new method could change the
way we manufacture nanodiamonds for use on Earth as well.