Solar Energy and Power

All Things Solar And Science

Raining Diamonds On Jupiter

The planet Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, is named after the Roman god Jupiter and is the fifth planet from the Sun (Mercury Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter..).

It is one of the brightest objects visible to the naked eye in the night sky.

Viewed from Earth, its light (reflected from the sun) can be bright enough to cast shadows. On average, it is the third-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.

Jupiter is a gas giant and weighs two-and-a-half times all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Its mass is a thousandth that of the Sun.

Although diamonds on Earth are rare, extraterrestrial diamonds (diamonds formed outside of Earth) are very common. Diamonds not much larger than molecules are abundant in meteorites and some of them formed in stars before the Solar System existed. 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 solar systems may be almost pure diamond. Diamonds are also found in stars and may have been the first mineral ever to have formed.

Rainfalls of extraterrestrial diamonds have been suggested to occur on Jupiter, as well as on Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, due to the high pressure and atmospheric make up.

Solar Energy and Power © 2018 Frontier Theme