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Raining Diamonds

14 January 2022
Astronomy

The link was sent in by Gary … www.space.com/diamond-rain-atmosphere-uranus-neptune … the two big outer planets, described here as ice planets as it is thought they are extremely cold, may rain diamonds. The emphasis is on the word may, one might suppose. Uranus and Neptune are considered mostly made up of water, ammonia, and methane. Astronomers refer to these molecules as ices. They aren't really ice in the way we know ice. They might not be solid for example. It is also thought the two planets may have rocky cores. Mathematical modeling is involved in the findings.

At https://phys.org/news/2022-01-ocean-physics-cyclones-jupiter.html … and the next story seems to have more credence. The swirling clouds that can be seen from the top of Jupiter have been mapped by the Juno mission. A study published this month in Nature Physics is derived from shots beamed back by Juno. There are distinct similarities in atmospheric patterns at Jupiter's poles, as one example, and the physical forces that drive cyclones on planet Earth. Now, why would that be? Jupiter's energy system, however, it on a scale much larger than the earth but it could well be used to understand physical mechanisms at play on our own planet.

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