On Neptune and Uranus, the crushing pressure thousands of miles down is thought to tear methane apart and squeeze the loose carbon into showers of solid diamond, and in 2017 physicists recreated the e
Space Daily • • science
Key Points:
- In 2017, scientists recreated conditions similar to Neptune’s interior in a lab using polystyrene and powerful lasers, confirming that carbon atoms can crystallize into diamonds under extreme pressure and temperature.
- This experiment validated the longstanding theory that methane in Neptune’s deep layers breaks down, allowing carbon to form diamond rain, although no direct observation of falling diamonds on Neptune has been made.
- The diamonds produced in the lab were nanometer-sized, but models suggest that diamonds inside Neptune could grow much larger and contribute to internal heat through gravitational energy release.
- Neptune and Uranus remain largely unexplored, with only brief Voyager 2 flybys in the 1980s providing data; a dedicated orbiter mission to Uranus is prioritized but decades away.
- The study advances our understanding of ice giant interiors through physics experiments, highlighting how much remains unknown about these distant planets.