Wonder-filled Solar System – Part VII

 

Uranus and Neptune have oceans of heated water but no land at all. There is a small presence of ammonia and methane gas, which, under extreme pressure, are turning into diamonds. In 1995, the Galileo probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere. It lasted only 58 minutes, reaching 156 kilometres inward before being destroyed by the immense pressure and heat. The mysteries of these planets will likely remain unsolved, and we may never truly know if Neptune contains diamonds.

Diamond Mines on Neptune

Neptune, the farthest planet in our solar system, is composed entirely of translucent, icy gas. It can be described as a watery planet, filled with water and some methane gas. The extreme pressure inside Neptune transforms the carbon in methane into diamonds. These diamonds continuously descend towards the planet's interior. Experiments in a California laboratory, using powerful lasers to replicate the pressure within Neptune, have demonstrated that methane indeed turns into diamonds under such conditions. This indicates that Neptune contains a vast amount of naturally formed diamonds.

Scientists suspect there are more mysteries in our solar system. They theorize that a larger, hidden planet might exist at the outer boundaries of the solar system.

Are There More Large Planets Hidden at the Edge of the Solar System?

As space science and technology advance, the mysteries of the universe are gradually unfolding. Since 1992, scientists have discovered over two thousand icy bodies beyond Neptune. In 2006, Pluto lost its planetary status, becoming just another object in the Kuiper Belt. These objects are so small that even if all the asteroids in the Kuiper Belt were combined, they would not form an object larger than Earth. Some mysterious phenomena are observed among these objects. The small asteroids in the Kuiper Belt have much longer orbital paths than usual, suggesting they are influenced by the gravity of another large, nearby planet.

Caltech professors Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown have begun calling this undiscovered planet "Planet Nine." Before 2006, Pluto was known as Planet Nine. Their calculations indicate that this unknown planet is three thousand times heavier than Pluto and ten times heavier than Earth.

Will this new planet ever be discovered? If it is, it will undoubtedly add to the mysteries of our already mysterious solar system.

References

1. Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest, The Universe Explained, Firefly Books, New York,             2018.

2. Paul Murdin, The Secret Lives of Planets, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2019.

3. Richard Corfield, Lives of the Planets, Basic Books, New York, 2007.

4. Andrew Cohen and Brian Cox, Planets, William Collins, London, 2014.

5. Pradip Deb – Arko o Suryomama (2015), Prithibi Surjer Tritiyo Graho (2016), Chander            Naam Luna (2017), Budh: Je Graher Ekdin Shoman Dui Bochhor (2018), Shukro: Je                Grahe Surjo Othe Poshchim Dike (2019), Lal Graho Mongol (2020), Mira Prakashan,            Dhaka; Mongole Obhijan (2020), Prothoma, Dhaka.