Unfathomable wealth.
Treasure Planet
The carbon surplus on Earth is Mercury Its surface is a drab gray, but new research suggests that beneath the tiny world lies a glowing interior worthy of being the crown jewel of our solar system.
Detail is New Research Published in the journal Nature CommunicationsResearchers believe that deep within Mercury’s rocky interior lies a layer of diamonds up to 11 miles thick — a startling theory that’s not only fascinating, but could help explain many of the planet’s puzzling properties.
“Many years ago we realized that Mercury’s extremely high carbon content might have important implications,” said study co-author Yanhao Lin of the Advanced Research Center for High Pressure Science and Technology in Beijing. Statement about the work“It made me realize that something special might have happened on the inside.”
The carbon conundrum
In recent years, scientists Why is Mercury’s surface so dark?Using data from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which orbited Mars from 2011 to 2015, the team discovered that the planet is covered in graphite, the same grey material used in pencil lead.
How the graphite got there is a question: Scientists think it must have once been molten, rising from an ocean of magma deep within Mercury’s mantle (the vast layer between the crust and core), and eventually cooling.
However, it is not clear how deep the source of that carbon is, and other carbon materials, such as diamond, may also have formed, depending on various depth-related factors, such as pressure and temperature.
of Sulfur may be found in planet’s iron core The 2019 discovery muddies things further: if present, the element could have diluting the magma ocean and influencing the way it eventually crystallizes.
Mr. Fahrenheit
To explore these possibilities, the researchers simulated conditions inside Mercury using an anvil press, a machine that subjected materials similar to those found on Mercury to pressures of up to 7 gigapascals, equivalent to seven times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
The researchers found that at the core-mantle boundary, where the lowest part of the mantle suddenly transitions into the core, the pressure is actually closer to 5.575 gigapascals. They also found that the introduction of sulfur dilution causes mantle material to completely melt at a lower-than-expected temperature of about 2,200 Kelvin.
As it turns out, these conditions are perfect for diamonds to form. Researchers speculate that once they formed in an ocean of magma, they gradually sank and were deposited at the boundary between the core and mantle, forming this gem-like formation about 300 miles below the Earth’s surface.
According to Lin, this is also Mercury’s magnetic field Diamonds are incredibly strong for their size, and because they are excellent conductors of heat, they could create extreme temperature differences inside, stirring up the liquid in Mercury’s core.
Lin added that this “may also be relevant for understanding other terrestrial planets of similar size and composition that may have formed diamonds.”
More about other planets: Scientists find signs of life in Venus’ clouds
