For nearly 40 years, astronomers and physicists have suspected that Deep within Neptune and Uranus, it rains diamonds or so.
Myth or Fact?
Well, it was not easy to study the outer planets of our Solar System, but Voyager 2 space mission successfully explained the hypothesis of diamond rain.
The outer 2 layers of Uranus & Neptune contain hydrogen & helium. Thus these 2 planets are called the 'ice giants' of our Solar System.
The Ice Giants
The shade of Uranus and Neptune is bluish due to the presence of ice made up of H20, methane (CH4) traces and ammonia (NH3).
Bluish Shade
He suggested that the carbon is isolated from the hydrocarbons mentioned above due to the high pressures and high temperatures. The clusters of these isolated carbon atoms would then be compressed into a diamond structure.
Marvin Ross
Since the carbon in the form of diamond is more stable and has higher density than methane, ammonia and water left in the outer layer, will start to sink toward the planet’s core.
This sinking of solid carbon crystals from the outer layer to the core looks like there is a heavy rain of giant diamonds.
Diamond Rain!
Though there were many attempts to test the diamond rain hypothesis, there were always some limitations in creating a high pressure and high temperature atmosphere.
Experiments to Test the Hypothesis
NASA is continuously working to study these phenomena in the lab that could explain to us how such planets have formed in our Solar System.