Diamond planets could exist, researchers claim

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2005-04-30 11:48pm

Bright shiny linky thingie here

“Lucy And the Sky With Diamonds” may be more than a song title. Some researchers claim planets orbiting other suns could be made partly of pure diamond, and could also harbor intelligent life and oceans of crude oil. The news appears in the April 15 issue of the research journal Nature.

More than 100 planets orbiting stars other than our sun are known. The scientists believe some of them may have condensed from gas and dust that is rich in carbon, the journal reported.

In a zone a few kilometers below the surface of such worlds , high pressure could convert the carbon into diamond, according to calculations reported in the publication. These were done by Marc Kuchner of Princeton University in New Jersey, and Sara Seager of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The planets would consist largely of hard carbon compounds such as silicon carbide, known as an industrial abrasive. Carbon on the surfaces of these planets could form hydrocarbons, compounds such as petroleum or crude oil that contain carbon and hydrogen, according to further findings by the researchers reported in the journal.

This, they said, would give the planets soft, tarry coatings, or even lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons such as methane.

Recent images of Saturn’s moon Titan suggest that this world may have such “petroleum” rivers and lakes, although the moon’s solid parts are thought to consist of ice, rock and iron.

Planets in our Solar System are generally thought to have cores of metal and rock, the first materials to condense from the gas and dust cloud surrounding the nascent Sun, Nature noted.

It has also been proposed that some carbon-rich material surrounded the Sun, accumulating in a ring called the tar line, the journal observed. Kuchner and Seager, according to the publication, decided to explore whether in some planetary systems whole planets might form at the tar line.

The researchers calculated that some carbon planets might be somewhat like Earth, according to Nature: solid and relatively small. They could possibly have thin atmospheres of methane or carbon monoxide, “rain” from which would create oily oceans below.

The cores of these planets would probably consist of the carbon-containing substances silicon carbide or titanium carbide, the Nature report added. A thick layer of graphite could overlay of this, it continued, and the graphite would be transformed into diamond at depths of a few kilometers.

As carbon is the key element in life on Earth, the researchers told Nature that life, even intelligent life, might exist on an Earth-sized carbon planet. Whatever such beings might be like, the scientists added, one thing is sure: they wouldn’t have to fight wars over oil.

Falkenhayn · Post by **Falkenhayn** » 2005-04-30 11:51pm

Man, when we develop FTL, DeBeer's execs will be shitting themselves.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-04-30 11:55pm

Wow. Diamond planets with oil oceans? I can see a massive imncrease in NASAspending in a few days.

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » 2005-04-30 11:58pm

Awesome.

I wonder how many of such planets there are out there.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2005-05-01 01:35am

Falkenhayn wrote:Man, when we develop FTL, DeBeer's execs will be shitting themselves.

The De Beers cartel will just buy them up and hide the planets in their vaults, controlling the amount that gets on the market to greatly inflate the diamond prices to unprecedented levels though the prices should actually be falling due to the increased supply, and they'll fund some bloody guerrilla wars in the meantime. Same as always.

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2005-05-01 01:40am

Falkenhayn wrote:Man, when we develop FTL, DeBeer's execs will be shitting themselves.

Diamonds can already be made artifically. The only reason why the price of diamonds remains so high is because of DeBeer's monopoly and lobbying to keep artifial diamonds out of the market. A more valuable rock would be amber, jade, or opal.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-05-01 01:45am

What I want to know is what hydrocarbon-based life could look like? Could they have skeletons of diamon? Could they have flesh in the sense that we do? What could that be made of?

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-05-01 01:59am

Fire Fly wrote:
Falkenhayn wrote:Man, when we develop FTL, DeBeer's execs will be shitting themselves.
Diamonds can already be made artifically. The only reason why the price of diamonds remains so high is because of DeBeer's monopoly and lobbying to keep artifial diamonds out of the market. A more valuable rock would be amber, jade, or opal.

Uh... DeBeers gave up its monopoly years ago. The artificial diamonds we can make today suck for jewelry, since they have such high nitrogen contents. It's conceivable that sometime in the future they're going to be good enough to make excellent jewelry, but the future is not today. The only commercial application for synthetic diamonds is industrial, and I think they're still too expensive for that, too.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-05-01 02:18am

The diamond industry still artificially inflates diamond prices.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-05-01 02:27am

Inflated or not, it's gonna be a while before it's cheaper to fly through interstellar space to mine diamond a couple kilometers under the surface of an alien planet ....

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2005-05-01 03:55am

Oh really? I didn't know DeBeers gave up their monopoly. But don't they still control a significant number of diamond mines? I was under the impression that they still had very significant assets that they controlled, since it seemed everyone who ever knew something on the subject who I talked to made the impression that they still did (as in a monopoly).

Once we can move beyond our planet, the price of valuable metals and rocks will drop significantly as the resource becomes more plentiful, I would think. Although, that won't be for a number of years into the future.

Civil War Man · Post by **Civil War Man** » 2005-05-01 04:46am

This thread sounds like one of the many products of Magrathea.

For all your custom planet needs.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-05-01 07:05am

Is the website where this article is linked to credible?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-05-01 09:41am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Is the website where this article is linked to credible?

Doesn't matter, this is old news. There have been reports of diamonds the size of moons in the past from spectral readings far from out system. Big as they are, they're also useless being so far away and a diamond's worth is dictated mainly by its cut, which still requires skilled workers.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-05-01 02:51pm

IIRC, Arthur C. Clarke already floated this concept. Apparently he theorized that the core of some gas giants could be diamonds, due to the intense heat and pressure; this was explored in 2061: Odyssey Three, I believe. An expedition is mounted to travel to Europa, to explore a mountain that has suddenly appeared on the surface; once they get there (after various misadventures) they discover it's actually an enormous chunk of diamond from Jupiter's core (it erupted and became a miniature sun in 2010).

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-05-01 08:13pm

Elheru Aran wrote:IIRC, Arthur C. Clarke already floated this concept.

And he already used the "Lucy And the Sky With Diamonds" joke. It's getting very stale.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-05-02 02:32am

Hmm...
1. Lets terraform them so they get just the right oxygen mix in their atmosphere.
2. Ignite

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2005-05-02 07:25am

Master of Ossus wrote: Uh... DeBeers gave up its monopoly years ago. The artificial diamonds we can make today suck for jewelry, since they have such high nitrogen contents. It's conceivable that sometime in the future they're going to be good enough to make excellent jewelry, but the future is not today. The only commercial application for synthetic diamonds is industrial, and I think they're still too expensive for that, too.

Actually, artificial diamonds nowadays are making a breakthrough in the jewellery industry. They don't have the shine factor of "real" diamonds, but the fact that some processes can inject colours into them and their price makes them attractive to the young, yuppie market.