- Like ice on water, solid diamond floats on liquid diamond. -
The finding explains possible liquid diamond oceans on other
planets. - Diamond oceans may cause off-kilter planetary tilts.
Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs,
could be floating on Neptune and Uranus, according to a recent
article in the journal Nature Physics. The research, based on
the first detailed measurements of the melting point of diamond,
found diamond behaves like water during freezing and melting,
with solid forms floating atop liquid forms. The surprising
revelation gives scientists a new understanding about diamonds
and some of the most distant planets in our solar system.
"Diamond is a relatively common material on Earth, but its
melting point has never been measured," said J. H. Eggert of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
"You can't just raise the temperature and have it melt, you have
to also go to high pressures, which makes it very difficult to
measure the temperature." Ot