An 18 km diamond layer on Mercury.
An 18 km diamond layer on Mercury.
Scientists from China and Belgium have published research reporting that Planet Mercury has an 18 km thick layer of diamonds, scientists believe that the diamond layer was formed due to the crystallization of a magma ocean rich in mercury carbon. , because it turns out that mercury apparently has a lot of carbon in its composition, in addition to also a huge metallic core.
As the planet cooled, and at this point we must remember that Mercury is much smaller than Earth and therefore cooled faster, in fact, Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, that carbon ended up forming a crust. of graphite on the surface, graphite is a type of carbon that we find in pencils, in the hands of an artist it can create a very valuable work of art, but graphite itself does not have much value.
Although the amazing thing is to think that they are both carbon, diamonds and graphite are composed of exactly the same thing and yet, diamond is one of the hardest materials that exist and graphite is so soft that it disintegrates when rubbing against paper, for We can write that with a pencil.
The secret is, as in many other things in the universe and in life, in how the atoms are organized, how to organize that set of atoms, the secret is in how to organize the atoms in this case, with a different organization you get either graphite or diamond, According to the researchers, the high pressure and temperature of the interior of mercury came into play here, at some point that layer was submerged, it remained inside the mercury.
This diamond layer is located between the mantle and the core of Mercury, that is, it is between 700 to 800 km deep. The study concludes that similar diamond layers could exist on other terrestrial planets, although the conditions should be exactly right for them. occur and although we cannot go after the mercury diamonds, this is an important detail because we know that in the solar system there are remains of ancient shattered planets, protoplanets that existed in the beginning of the solar system and that ended up destroyed by impacts between they.
There is a giant asteroid Psyche that is basically metallic and is believed to be part of the core of one of those ancient protoplanets, perhaps there is an asteroid out there that is basically made of diamond, the product of some protoplanet that was destroyed and that also lost its diamond layer ; That is why it is so interesting to investigate asteroids.