Mercury And Diamond

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Mercury And Diamond

By Bethany Brookshire August 11, 2022

Mercury’s surface may be studded with diamonds


Meteorites may have turned much of the planet’s graphite crust into precious gemstones


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A barrage of meteorite impacts may have transformed some graphite on Mercury’s surface (pictured) into diamond.
NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Diamonds may litter the surface of the planet orbiting closest to our sun.
Those diamonds could have been forged by space rocks pummeling Mercury for billions of years. The planet’s long history of being pelted by meteorites , comets and asteroids is clear from its cratered crust. Now, computer models suggest that those impacts may have had another effect. Meteorite strikes may have flash-baked about one-third of Mercury’s crust into diamond. 
Planetary scientist Kevin Cannon shared that finding on March 10. Cannon works at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He presented his results at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.
Diamonds are crystal lattices of carbon atoms. Those atoms lock together under extreme heat and pressure. On Earth, diamonds crystallize at least 150 kilometers (93 miles) underground. The gemstones then ride to the surface during volcanic eruptions. But meteorite strikes are also thought to form diamonds. Those impacts create very high heat and pressure that can transform carbon into diamond, Cannon explains.
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With that in mind, he turned to Mercury’s surface. Surveys of that surface suggest it contains fragments of graphite. That’s a mineral made of carbon. “What we think happened is that when [Mercury] first formed, it had a magma ocean,” Cannon says. “Graphite crystallized out of that magma.” Meteorites slamming into Mercury’s crust could have later turned that graphite into diamond.
Cannon wondered just how much diamond might have been forged this way. To find out, he used computers to model 4.5 billion years of impacts on a graphite crust. If Mercury were coated in graphite 300 meters (984 feet) thick, the battering would have made 16 quadrillion tons of diamonds. (That’s a 16 followed by 15 zeroes!) Such a trove would be about 16 times Earth’s estimated diamond stockpile.
Simone Marchi is a planetary scientist who wasn’t involved in the research. He works at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. “There’s no reason to doubt that diamonds could be produced in this way,” Marchi says. But how many diamonds might have survived is another story. Some of the gemstones were likely destroyed by later impacts, he says.
Cannon agrees. But he thinks the losses would have been “very limited.” That’s because the melting point of diamond is so high. It exceeds 4000° Celsius (7230° Fahrenheit). Future computer models will include diamonds remelting, Cannon says. This could refine the estimated size of Mercury’s current diamond supply.
Space missions could also scout for diamonds on Mercury. One opportunity may come in 2025. Europe and Japan’s spacecraft BepiColombo will reach Mercury that year. The space probe could search for infrared light reflected by diamonds, Cannon says. This could reveal how glitzy the solar system’s smallest planet really is.
carbon : A chemical element that is the physical basis of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is an important part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is capable of self-bonding, chemically, to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically and commercially important molecules. (in climate studies) The term carbon sometimes will be used almost interchangeably with carbon dioxide to connote the potential impacts that some action, product, policy or process may have on long-term atmospheric warming.
crust : (in geology) Earth's outermost surface, usually made from dense, solid rock (in planetary science) the outermost surface of rocky planets, dwarf planets and natural satellites.
diamond : One of the hardest known substances and rarest gems on Earth. Diamonds form deep within the planet when carbon is compressed under incredibly strong pressure.
eruption : (in geoscience) The sudden bursting or spraying of hot material from deep inside a planet or moon and out through its surface. Volcanic eruptions on Earth usually send hot lava, hot gases or ash into the air and across surrounding land. In colder parts of the solar system, eruptions often involve liquid water spraying out through cracks in an icy crust. This happens on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that is covered in ice.
graphite : Like diamond, graphite (the substance found in pencil lead) is a form of pure carbon. Unlike diamond, graphite is very soft. The main difference between these two forms of carbon is the number and type of chemical bonds between carbon atoms in each substance.
infrared : A type of electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye. The name incorporates a Latin term and means “below red.” Infrared light has wavelengths longer than those visible to humans. Other invisible wavelengths include X-rays, radio waves and microwaves. Infrared light tends to record the heat signature of an object or environment.
lunar : Of or relating to Earth’s moon.
magma : The molten rock that resides under Earth’s crust. When it erupts from a volcano, this material is referred to as lava.
mercury : (in astronomy and here the term is capitalized) The smallest in our solar system and the one whose orbit is closest to our sun. Named after a Roman god (Mercurius), one year on this planet lasts 88 Earth days, which is shorter than one of its own days: Each of those lasts 175.97 times as long as a day on Earth.
meteorite : A lump of rock or metal from space that passes through Earth’s atmosphere and collides with the ground.
mineral : Crystal-forming substances that make up rock, such as quartz, apatite or various carbonates. Most rocks contain several different minerals mish-mashed together. A mineral usually is solid and stable at room temperatures and has a specific formula, or recipe (with atoms occurring in certain proportions) and a specific crystalline structure (meaning that its atoms are organized in regular three-dimensional patterns). (in physiology) The same chemicals that are needed by the body to make and feed tissues to maintain health.
molten : A word describing something that is melted, such as the liquid rock that makes up lava.
planet : A large celestial object that orbits a star but unlike a star does not generate any visible light.
planetary science : The science of planets other than Earth.
pressure : Force applied uniformly over a surface, measured as force per unit of area.
quadrillion : A very big unit of measure equal to 1,000 trillion. It would be written with a 1 followed by 15 zeros.
shell : The normally hard, protective outer covering of something.
simulate : (in computing) To try and imitate the conditions, functions or appearance of something. Computer programs that do this are referred to as simulations.
simulation : (v. simulate) An analysis, often made using a computer, of some conditions, functions or appearance of a physical system. A computer program would do this by using mathematical operations that can describe the system and how it might change over time or in response to different anticipated situations.
sun : The star at the center of Earth’s solar system. It is about 27,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Also a term for any sunlike star.
survey : To view, examine, measure or evaluate something, often land or broad aspects of a landscape.
trove : A large collection of valuable things.
Meeting:​ K.M. Cannon. Mercury and other diamond encrusted planets . Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March 10, 2022.
Nikk Ogasa is a staff writer who focuses on the physical sciences for Science News . He has a master's degree in geology from McGill University, and a master's degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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John Lennon has been gone for over 40 years, but perhaps Paul McCartney could be persuaded to change one word in a beloved song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band written mostly by John. Why would he do that? Because new research suggest that astronomers can now see Mercury in the sky with diamonds. Will this change the exoplanetary focus of Musk and Bezos?
“The pressure wave from asteroids or comets striking the surface at tens of kilometers per second could transform that graphite into diamonds.”
Picture yourself in a seat at a conference – specifically, the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Houston recently. There, Kevin Cannon, a geologist at the Colorado School of Mines, made the case for our solar system’s smallest planet being covered with diamonds. His explanation is actually pretty simple to follow. Mercury’s composition is primarily graphite -- a crystalline form carbon. In its normal soft state, it’s perfect for pencil leads and lubricants. However, put it under high pressure and heat and it becomes diamonds. Many astronomers and geologists believe that four billion years ago, our inner solar system was in a state of cataclysmic asteroid activity called the Late Heavy Bombardment. While the asteroids pummeled Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the telltale evidence was discovered in Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions. That’s when the Moon got a majority of its craters and it’s speculated that Mercury, with twice as many as the Moon, got twice the bombardment.
“You could have a significant amount of diamonds near the surface.”
Scientists believe the Mercury of 4 billion years ago was covered with magma and a layer of graphite upwards of 300 feet deep. As those asteroids hit Mercury, the pounding pressure turned the graphite into “shock diamonds.” What is a “significant amount”? According to Wired , Cannon estimates as much as 16 quadrillion tons! Before you book a seat and attempt to hijack a Blue Origin flight to Mercury, they’re tiny and buried all over Mercury.
Tiny diamonds found in some asteroids are thought to be shock diamonds formed by collisions. Earth and the Moon don’t have them because their surfaces aren’t covered with graphite like Mercury. Laura Lark, a researcher at Brown University in Rhode Island, also spoke at the conference and says dark spots of graphite on the surface of Mercury in images taken by cameras aboard NASA’s Messenger spacecraft between 2011 and 2015 support Cannon’s theory. Another mission could confirm it, but the next one isn’t until 2025 when BepiColombo, launched by the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency reaches Mercury and drops a probe to map the surface. That mission could also verify a second theory – that a huge asteroid smashed into Mercury between 10 or 20 million years ago and smashed what was once a bigger planet into the tiny one it is today, blowing the rest of it into space and onto Earth and its close neighbors.
Will 16 quadrillion tons of diamonds entice space miners to head to Mercury with big shovels and buckets … and space suits designed to withstand temperatures ranging from 800 degrees Fahrenheit in the daytime and -290 F at night?
Picture yourself in a ship on a mission ... to Mercury in the sky with diamonds.

Paul Seaburn is the editor at Mysterious Universe and its most prolific writer. He’s written for TV shows such as "The Tonight Show", "Politically Incorrect" and an award-winning children’s program. He's been published in “The New York Times" and "Huffington Post” and has co-authored numerous collections of trivia, puzzles and humor. His “ What in the World!” podcast is a fun look at the latest weird and paranormal news, strange sports stories and odd trivia. Paul likes to add a bit of humor to each MU post he crafts. After all, the mysterious doesn't always have to be serious.

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