Gas Giant weather

[Drakon]

I found this
http://nypost.com/2013/10/15/its-ra...source=SFnewyorkpost&utm_medium=SFnewyorkpost

Apparently it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn. This could make refueling operations both more dangerous and more profitable.

 

[McPerth]

And only fuel and hydrocarurs are skipped from them :rofl:?

 

[HG_B]

I found this
http://nypost.com/2013/10/15/its-ra...source=SFnewyorkpost&utm_medium=SFnewyorkpost

Apparently it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn. This could make refueling operations both more dangerous and more profitable.

At the pressure required to form these, your ship wouldn't go there. Too deep in the atmosphere.

 

[esampson]

Well, if it's in the NYP it must be true.

As far as refueling goes, I suspect that the carbon has to be both molten (or near molten) and under tremendous pressure to form into diamond. Otherwise it would form into graphite or one of the other carbon allotropes.

The temperature may not be too much of an issue due to lightning, but that would probably only result in very tiny diamonds because of the shortness of duration, and it would still require a considerable amount of pressure. Larger diamonds like what the story mentions would probably only occur way down deep inside the atmosphere where the pressure generates tremendous heat and even the micro-diamonds of the lightning flashes would probably require pressure far greater than what you would want to subject a spacecraft to.

As for skimming the gas giants for diamonds, I doubt that there's a real need in the Imperium to do that. They're just carbon arranged in a specific lattice and carbon is cheap. We're already able to align the carbon into proper lattices in small scale and I would imagine that in the Imperium they would be able to do it on much larger scale through more direct methods than simply 'lots of pressure'.

 

[HG_B]

We're already able to align the carbon into proper lattices in small scale and I would imagine that in the Imperium they would be able to do it on much larger scale through more direct methods than simply 'lots of pressure'.

We already make gem quality & sized diamonds. By the "Imperium" era it would be literally, child's play.

 

[aramis]

THe temperatures in grown diamonds via HTHP are not molten level - 1400°C - and it has, in the three common allotropic types, no liquid form - it sublimes at around 3500°C. It may be close to liquid due to pressure...

But the other methods are well below that temp. And don't require all that much pressure.

Carbon Vapor Deposition is the way the largest synthetics are grown - it's slow, tho'. It can, theoretically, be used to make sheets of diamond. Ultrasound cavitation likewise produces low pressure low temperature diamonds.

Detonation Microdiamonds can be created by pressurized detonations - it is enough to vaporize the carbon, and contained, the pressure allows it to form into nanocrystals as it condenses right back to solid.

 

[esampson]

We already make gem quality & sized diamonds. By the "Imperium" era it would be literally, child's play.

Yeah, by 'small scale' all I really meant is that we aren't producing diamonds on the same scale we are producing things like steel or even titanium alloys. We can certainly produce rather large crystals, if we've a mind to, but the total volume is still relatively low.

But as you said, by the time you are reaching Imperial levels of technology you would probably have the capability of cranking out as much diamond as you would want.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I posted a similar thread earlier this year. I think the consensus was that it was an old theory, and still strictly postulation. for at least fifty years now (perhaps longer). It's still pretty interesting to contemplate.

On a side note, I'm reminded of an old kids' flick, Rainbow Bright and the Star Stealer...don't ask

 

[esampson]

I posted a similar thread earlier this year. I think the consensus was that it was an old theory, and still strictly postulation. for at least fifty years now (perhaps longer). It's still pretty interesting to contemplate.

On a side note, I'm reminded of an old kids' flick, Rainbow Bright and the Star Stealer...don't ask

It kind of reminds me of some things I saw a few years back where they were postulating that on one of the newly discovered exoplanets it would have rains of molten rock.

At the time I thought about it and decided that an alien species adapted to life in environments much colder than our own would be horrified at the idea of a planet where it rains 'molten ice'.

 

[Blue Ghost]

yeah, but wouldn't that make for a cool adventure