It's Raining Diamonds Again

[Knight of Clear Skies]

From an article on the BBC website today:

'Diamond rain could be "the most common precipitation in the Solar System" the authors say.'

Interesting idea, the pressure is certainly high enough deep within the gas giants to form diamond, although it sounds like they have some way to go to prove this actually happens. De Beers can't be best pleased.

[LukeSkywatcher]

The price would go through the roof because of the cost of getting those diamonds from there to here.

IF that were even possible.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Sure, but the price of diamonds has been artificially inflated for about a century, due to perceived scarcity. I like the idea that they could actually be - in one sense at least - more common than raindrops.

[JamesF]

Yes, I have to admit that I wouldn't be shedding a single tear for De Beers were someone to arrive on Earth with a few hundred tonnes of diamonds.

I'm not really sure why they're even allowed to get away with the way they manipulate the market.  Too many mucky fingers in pies, I suspect.

James

[Stargazer_00]

The idea that diamond is rare is a joke really.  They might be rare on the surface of our planet but they certainly arent rare in the cosmos. All diamond is is squashed carbon and there is LOTS of carbon out there.

Exotics like silver, gold, platiunum and to an even greater degree radioactive materials like plutonium and uranium are far rarer than diamond in cosmological terms.  However I don't think your proespective wife would be overly impressed if you asked for her hand in marriage and presented her with a uranium ring.  I guess the novelty of it (and possibly soon after, her) glowing in the dark would quickly lose any appeal.

For those of you who stick on a point; I am aware that uranium doesn't glow in the dark.