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Uranus may have Melting and Resolidifying Diamond Oceans
Discovery News ^ | Jan 2010 | Eric Bland

Posted on 01/19/2010 6:54:40 AM PST by rface

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 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.

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(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; diamondsareforever; jamesbond; moonsofuranus; neptune; ringarounduranus; uranus
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Men Looking for Diamonds


1 posted on 01/19/2010 6:54:40 AM PST by rface
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To: rface

Thats gotta be pretty hard on Uranus.


2 posted on 01/19/2010 6:55:37 AM PST by equalitybeforethelaw
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To: rface
Hemorrhoids.
3 posted on 01/19/2010 6:55:59 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this)
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To: rface

Uranus in the Sky with Diamonds?


4 posted on 01/19/2010 6:56:22 AM PST by Hegemony Cricket (The emperor has no pedigree.)
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To: rface

There was a Dr. Who episode that took place on a diamond planet!!!


5 posted on 01/19/2010 6:57:08 AM PST by C19fan
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To: rface

Either this article is stupid, or I am, and I don’t rule out myself!

A diamond is carbon, right? Pure carbon? Carbon melts at high temps? How are such high temps generated so far away from the sun?

Couldn’t we say that the Earth is chock full of diamonds? Coal is carbon, just like diamonds.


6 posted on 01/19/2010 6:57:49 AM PST by brownsfan (The average American: Uninformed, and unconcerned.)
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To: rface

Has De Beers already claimed the mineral rights?


7 posted on 01/19/2010 6:58:23 AM PST by Constitution Day
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To: C19fan

Captain Kirk shot the Lizard Man with a cannon he mad and a diamond chunk as the cannon ball.....the Lizard Man was knocked down - but Kirk spared his life......I make my wife watch that episode with me sometimes....she rolls her eyes.


8 posted on 01/19/2010 6:59:45 AM PST by rface (Martin Luther King Jr......One of America's Great Heroes.)
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To: rface

I know that episode. I think Kirk made a comment, before he figured out he could make a primative cannon, about how he would trade all those diamonds for some weapon.


9 posted on 01/19/2010 7:01:14 AM PST by C19fan
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To: brownsfan

Materials behave very differently at extremes of temperature and pressure. While Uranus may be far from the sun, the vast pressure of its gaseous atmosphere might mean that the melting point of the crystalline form of carbon is at a much lower temperature than here on Earth.


10 posted on 01/19/2010 7:01:44 AM PST by Notforprophet
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To: brownsfan

My guess is the diamonds would be found under Uranus’s thick atmosphere which would be a high pressure and temperature environment.


11 posted on 01/19/2010 7:02:30 AM PST by C19fan
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To: equalitybeforethelaw

Uranus is crusty?


12 posted on 01/19/2010 7:02:35 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: rface

I’m rich and I didn’t even know it. Now I won’t have to have my gold fillings removed.


13 posted on 01/19/2010 7:05:01 AM PST by almcbean
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To: rface
I've always enjoyed Uranus.


14 posted on 01/19/2010 7:08:30 AM PST by scoobysnak71 (I'm light skinned with no negro dialect. Could you milk me?)
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To: MrB

Kids, err I mean, Scientists say the darnedest things.


15 posted on 01/19/2010 7:08:36 AM PST by DonaldC (A nation cannot stand in the absence of religious principle.)
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To: rface
The Gorn

16 posted on 01/19/2010 7:09:51 AM PST by NCC-1701 (ON 1-19-09 GAS WAS, ON AVERAGE IN MEMPHIS, $1.43 A GALLON.)
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To: Constitution Day
>"Has De Beers already claimed the mineral rights?"

Someone say beer?


17 posted on 01/19/2010 7:10:35 AM PST by scoobysnak71 (I'm light skinned with no negro dialect. Could you milk me?)
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To: rface

I love that pic! Look at the look on Sarko’s face. He can’t believe what an ignorant jerk zer0 is! He knows zero is “faible!”


18 posted on 01/19/2010 7:12:35 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: rface

More carbon footprint?


19 posted on 01/19/2010 7:13:16 AM PST by Mobties
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To: Notforprophet

[While Uranus may be far from the sun, the vast pressure of its gaseous atmosphere might mean that the melting point of the crystalline form of carbon is at a much lower temperature than here on Earth.]

So, you are saying even though Uranus is where the sun don’t shine, the vast pressure of the gaseous atmosphere might lower the melting point of crystalline forms of carbon (like that Taco Bell burrito I ate) and liquefy it? Ruh Roh, I think I’m in trouble.


20 posted on 01/19/2010 7:58:30 AM PST by FastCoyote (I am intolerant of the intolerable.)
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