Earth logo

The second largest planet in the solar system - Saturn, the planet that rains "diamonds"

The planet that rains "diamonds"

By crudden ellePublished 3 years ago 3 min read
Saturn

Can diamonds be mass-produced on Saturn? Can.

Under the upper atmosphere of Saturn, a large number of water and gas clouds are constantly dancing, and the super lightning flashes turn the methane gas into a large cloud of soot. The downward pressure increases, and these soots accidentally turn into diamonds . As the saying goes: a grain of Saturn's ash on your head may be a diamond, but don't think too much about it, these diamonds quickly disintegrate and eventually liquefy under the pressure of Saturn. Forty thousand kilometers below Saturn's surface, take a look at its largest source of energy. The pressure here is very high, the gas looks like liquid metal, and the molten helium rains down in the hydrogen, releasing an amazing amount of heat. This is a very specific heat source, like the engine of Saturn's weather.

After a four-year flight in space, Voyager 2 arrived at Saturn in 1981, with a voyage of more than 1.6 billion kilometers. Don't ask me how I calculated it. Photographed by Voyager 2 Thousands of photos of Saturn and its rings and moons. Saturn itself is composed of hydrogen and helium, and here we see a strange meteorological phenomenon. "Voyager" clearly shows that Saturn's upper atmosphere is almost entirely composed of helium and hydrogen. These two gases were extremely abundant in the early solar system, but this once chaotic atmosphere now forms a complex weather system. One of the most surprising phenomena is that the clouds have a huge hexagonal structure, which is big enough to hold four earths.

Saturn is 1.4 billion kilometers away from the sun. Compared with the earth, Saturn is so special that it is difficult for people to imagine that the two were formed from the same material. A little earlier than our Earth, we can imagine that Saturn is a very large meteorite that doesn't need to tumble, but its internal structure is made of rock and ice. As it rolled around the inner layer of the solar system, through interaction, some matter was fused and gathered, and it gradually became a little bigger. Saturn's orbit is beyond what's called the snow line, where it's extremely cold, where water exists in solid form, mixed with rocks, and grows bigger and bigger like a snowball.

After millions of years in this way, when the volume and mass are large enough, both hydrogen and helium in the solar system can be adsorbed, because the few planets near the sun are not enough to bind this planet through gravitational force. two gases. With the accumulation of hydrogen and helium, an atmosphere is formed on the surface of Saturn, creating a huge atmospheric pressure. The atmospheric pressure acts on the surface of Saturn, and the temperature rises under the high pressure, generating heat and light. Under such pressure, Saturn changed its shape, from a rocky planet to a gas giant.

How the beautiful rings of Saturn are formed. A leading opinion is that some tens of millions of years ago, outside Saturn's atmosphere, there must have been an icy moon approaching, when Saturn's huge gravitational force exerted on this moon, it began to split, and Saturn began to devour its "children". ". In Saturn's low-Earth orbit, the shattered moons created countless icy bodies that rapidly orbited Saturn under the action of gravitational and centrifugal forces, thus forming the spectacular rings of Saturn. The diameter of this ring exceeds the diameter of Jupiter and is about ten meters thick. Saturn's rings are not a whole, and the gaps are emptied by rocks about the same size as the moon, which cuts Saturn's rings into many concentric rings. Under the force of Saturn's satellites, the ice particles inside are attracted and pulled up to form ice peaks. Under the sunlight, one side is crystal clear and beautiful, and the other side casts shadows.

The name Saturn sounds earthy, but in this way, he has become the most beautiful "star master". By 1997, the "Cassini" probe flew to Saturn, and it was much more massive than the "Voyager", and it had to follow a different route to enter the orbit near Saturn. In order to save fuel, it flew over multiple planets. With the help of planetary gravitational ejection, it completed acceleration and heading adjustment. The whole journey took seven years. Clarity observes Saturn's rings too.

Science

About the Creator

crudden elle

Partagez un peu de science chaque jour

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2026 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.