Deep within Neptune and Uranus, it rains diamonds—or so astronomers and physicists have suspected for nearly 40 years. The outer planets of our Solar System are hard to study, however.
The diamond rain phenomenon is believed by some scientists to take place on Uranus and Neptune in our solar system. It is thought it exists some 8,000 km below the surface of our ice giant neighbours, created from commonly found mixtures of hydrogen and carbon, squeezed together at incredible pressure.
Thanks to the new atmospheric data discovered in 2012, we finally know how. With carbon being abundant in this gas giant, lightning storms turn methane into soot which as it falls hardens into chunks of graphite and then rare diamonds!
A massive gas giant orbiting a star about 855 light-years from Earth, WASP-121b may have metal clouds and rain made of liquid gems, according to new research. A study showing how water atmospherically cycles between the planet's two sides published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
As the diamonds grow, they may fall deeper into the atmosphere. In the lower depths of Saturn and Jupiter, the temperature and pressure conditions are so extreme that the diamonds can melt into liquid, forming diamond "rain" drops.
Tidally locked hot Jupiter WASP-121b has an atmosphere so hot on one side that it breaks down water molecules and rains rubies and sapphires.
In fact, this is what scientists have been searching for lately, and was proven through modern discoveries thanks to chemistry; the sky can rain diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.
The atmosphere of Venus is made up mainly of carbon dioxide, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid completely cover the planet.
Last year, astronomers revealed the "hot Jupiter," which lies about 640 light-years from Earth, has a curious nighttime quirk. Every evening on the planet it rains iron. Yes, the stuff that goes into building our skyscrapers and apartments literally buckets down from the sky on WASP-76b.
But the newly-analysed planet known as K2-141b is unusual even among those extreme worlds. Its surface, ocean and atmosphere are all made up of rocks, which fall like rain and melt into its huge seas. Two thirds of the planet is stuck in perpetual, blazing daylight from the orange dwarf star that K2-141b orbits around.
Glaciers made of nitrogen ice creep across its surface, hazes cycle through its puffy atmosphere, and dark organic compounds rain down.
While the red planet's thin atmosphere and bitter cold temperatures keep these frozen clouds from ever falling in the form of rain and snow we see here on Earth, there is actually a type of precipitation on Mars. "This precipitation most likely takes the form of frost," NASA explains.
Deep within Neptune and Uranus, it rains diamonds—or so astronomers and physicists have suspected for nearly 40 years. The outer planets of our Solar System are hard to study, however. Only a single space mission, Voyager 2, has flown by to reveal some of their secrets, so diamond rain has remained only a hypothesis.
High pressure experiments suggest large amounts of diamonds are formed from methane on the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune, while some planets in other planetary systems may be almost pure diamond. Diamonds are also found in stars and may have been the first mineral ever to have formed.
In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts.
New research by scientists apparently shows that it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn. In fact the planets have the capability to create 1000 tonnes of diamonds a year.
Earth and Saturn's moon Titan are the only worlds in our solar system where liquid rain hits a surface.
The most acidic rain in the Solar System is found on the planet Venus, where the working fluid in the cycle of evaporation, condensation and precipitation is a sulphuric acid solution (rather than water, as on Earth).
Uranus and Neptune both contain chemicals like methane, sulfur and ammonia in their atmospheres. It's really cold that far away from the Sun. So, these chemicals might be frozen or trapped in crystals of ice. Because of this, Uranus and Neptune are called "ice giants."
On Saturn it occasionally rains diamonds.
Jupiter's mushball ammonia rain could explain the mystery behind shallow lightning storms in its atmosphere. Lighting storms on Jupiter aren't just happening in the deep reaches of its atmosphere but higher up too.
Uranus holds the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in the Solar System: a very chilly -224℃. The temperature on Neptune is still very cold, of course – usually around -214℃ – but Uranus beats that. The reason why Uranus is so cold is nothing to do with its distance from the Sun.
Saturn's moon Enceladus has geysers that shoot water vapor out into space. It then freezes and falls back to the surface as snow. Some of the ice also escapes Enceladus to become part of Saturn's rings.
The white clouds, which get up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide or so, are high up in Jupiter's atmosphere — so high that they're very cold, and the material they shed is therefore almost certainly frozen, Juno team members said.