There is a diamond mine on this planet
According to a report in Live Science, a recent study has revealed that a thick layer of diamonds may exist hundreds of miles beneath Mercury’s surface. Yanhao Lin, a scientist at the Center for High-Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research in Beijing and co-author of the study, said that Mercury’s extremely high carbon content “made me realize that maybe something special has happened in its interior.”
He said that the first planet in our solar system has such a magnetic field, however, it is much weaker than that of the Earth. In addition, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft discovered unusually dark areas on Mercury’s surface, which it identified as graphite, a type of carbon. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications and may shed light on the planet’s structure and unusual magnetic field.
How a diamond is made
Scientists believe Mercury probably formed from the cooling of a hot lava ocean, similar to how the other terrestrial planets developed. The ocean from which Mercury arose was probably rich in silicates and carbon. The planet’s outer crust and middle mantle formed as residual magma crystallized, while metals first accumulated within it to form a central core.
For many years, scientists believed that the temperature and pressure in the mantle were just right for carbon to form graphite, which floats to the surface because it is lighter than metal. However, a 2019 study suggested that Mercury’s mantle may be up to 50 kilometers (80 miles) deeper than previously thought. This would significantly increase the temperature and pressure at the mantle-core boundary, resulting in conditions where carbon could crystallize into diamond.
Researchers said this
To look at this possibility, a team of Belgian and Chinese researchers created chemical soups using carbon, silica, and iron. These mixtures, which resemble several types of meteorites in composition, are believed to resemble Mercury’s magma ocean. In addition, the researchers added varying concentrations of iron sulfide to these soups. Based on Mercury’s sulfur-rich surface today, they figured the magma ocean was similarly sulfur-rich.
According to scientists, if diamonds are present, they form a layer that is usually about 15 km (9 miles) thick. However, mining these diamonds is not possible. In addition to the extremely high temperatures on the planet, diamonds are located about 485 km below the surface, making extraction impossible. According to Lin, diamonds may aid in the transfer of heat between the mantle and the core, resulting in temperature differences and the rotation of liquid iron, which would generate a magnetic field.
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