14 DAY TRIAL // Diamonds are quite precious on Earth, even if it's because of a long monopoly on the market and not necessarily because they're so rare. Still, it's definitely more abundant on other planets. In fact, on the larger planets in our solar system, you may find veritable "diamondbergs" and even liquid diamonds.
A new study by planetary scientists Mona Delitsky of California Specialty Engineering and Kevin H. Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison sheds some light on whether diamonds can form on the planets in our solar system.
It's been long accepted that diamonds can be found on Uranus or Neptune, but Saturn and Jupiter were thought to be too hot and too big to enable the formation of solid diamond.
Diamond is a form of carbon, like graphite, that only forms under certain conditions. Scientists now have a much more accurate picture of what those conditions are, i.e. what pressure and temperatures will turn carbon into diamond, in liquid and solid form.
These new calculations show that solid diamond can form in the lower depths of Saturn and Jupiter, where the temperature and pressure is high enough. The diamond then falls towards the center of the planets where the increasing temperatures and pressures turn it into a liquid.