A recent study revealed that there could be a thick layer of Diamonds under the mercury surface, according to Live Science. This study is published in Nature Communication on June 14. According to this study, the layer of the diamond is around 9 miles thick, with no chance of mining.
Mercury is the first planet from the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System. Due to its smaller size the mercury magnetic field is lesser than Earth's. The surface gravity of Mars and Mercury is roughly similar.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun the temperature on the planet is very extreme along with the heavily cratered surface due to impact events. According to NASA, the pitch-black surface of the Mercury is due to the presence of graphite on its surface that has resulted in the formation of Patches.
Yanhao Lin has shared a statement on this new results, he is a staff scientist at the Center for High-Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research in Beijing and also is the co-author of the study, he said, "made me realize that something special probably happened within its interior."
Scientists believe that the planet's formation occurred due to the cooling of an ocean of hot magma. Mercury Ocean would be rich in carbon and silicate.
The central core formed through the coagulation of metals, while the middle mantle and outer crust developed from the crystallization of magma within the planet.
The study done in 2019 revealed that the mantle core of the Mercury is around 80 miles or 50 kilometres deep, and because of this carbon present, it might have gone under the process of crystallization resulting in the formation of a Diamond.
The pressure and temperature provided to the carbon might be responsible for the formation of this 9-mile-thick layer. Researchers from Belgium and China, including Lin, experimented to understand this formation.
The team created a chemical mixture that is similar to Mercury's early magma ocean using the elements that are iron, silica, carbon, and iron sulphide to form the formation of the sulphur-rich nature of Mercury.
The team conducted multiple anvil presses, creating a similar condition to the Mercury, subjecting the mixture of elements to extreme conditions with temperatures around 3,578 degrees Fahrenheit (1,970 degrees Celsius) and pressures 70,000 times greater than Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Computer simulations were also utilized to accurately measure the pressure and temperature at Mercury's core-mantle boundary, as well as to simulate the physical conditions under which graphite or diamond would be stable.
Doing this experiment revealed several findings that the formation of the Diamond is caused due to the solidifying of the chemical at extreme temperatures.
According to Lin, mining the diamond out is not possible due to the extreme temperature of the planet and the depth of the diamond. The might be the medium through which the heat transfer takes place between the core and mantle, resulting in the liquid iron swirling and generating a magnetic field.
“The processes that led to Mercury’s diamond layer might have occurred on other planets, potentially leaving similar signatures,” said Lin.
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