'Diamond rain' falls on Saturn and Jupiter 14 October 2013Last updated at 07:04 ET By James Morgan Science reporter, BBC News Diamond rain could be "the most common precipitation in the Solar System" the authors say Diamonds big enough to be worn by Hollywood film stars could be raining down on Saturn and Jupiter, US scientists have calculated. New atmospheric data for the gas giants indicates that carbon is abundant in its dazzling crystal form, they say. Lightning storms turn methane into soot (carbon) which as it falls hardens into chunks of graphite and then diamond. These diamond "hail stones" eventually melt into a liquid sea in the planets' hot cores, they told a conference. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote People ask me - how can you really tell? End QuoteDr Kevin BainesUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison He added they would be of a size that the late film actress Elizabeth Taylor would have been "proud to wear". "The bottom line is that 1,000 tonnes of diamonds a year are being created on Saturn. Thunderstorm alleys
ASTRONET A Cosmic Map of the Exoplanets [Interactive] Exoplanet hunters have been busy. Since 2011 astronomers have discovered, on average, about three exoplanets every week—a precious few of which lie in the “habitable zone,” where water could take liquid form. This chart maps the known cosmic neighborhood of 861 planets. Here we've separated the planets into four categories. Despite the apparent multitude of nearby planets, researchers have been able to find just a minuscule fraction of what’s out there. Graphics and interactive by Jan Willem Tulp (Sources: the Exoplanet Data Explorer at exoplanets.org; planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov; “The Exoplanet Orbit Database,” by J. Skymaps.com - Publication Quality Sky Maps & Star Charts
The Milky Way Project Eyes on the Solar System Two Good Ways to Really *Get* the Solar System The Sun is one busy celestial body. In addition to giving us light, holding the solar system together, and providing the energy for almost every living thing on Earth, it’s also a grapefruit in a grass field in Austin, Texas, and a 50-foot yellow archway in northern Maine. Now, obviously this huge mass of incandescent gas is not literally making a tour of some of the geographical extremes of the contiguous U.S. states. These are just two places it’s made recent honorary appearances in the name of science. The reason for these appearances is that it’s a lot harder to accurately depict the solar system than a lot of people realize. So to accurately depict the scale of the solar system, some educators and communicators build rather unconventional models on a scale that doesn’t fit on a poster, in a classroom, or even within a school. While the two models are very different in materials and scale, one important thing they share is the element of movement.
Stunning New Photo Of Europa Shows Jupiter's Icy Moon Just As The Human Eye Would See It It's the most extraordinary image ever of Europa. NASA's newly "remastered" photo of Jupiter's icy moon (below) shows the satellite's geology in stunning, high-definition detail. And unlike a similar image released previously--in which the colors were artificially enhanced--the new photo shows Europa pretty much as the human eye would see it. (Story continues below image.) The color variations across the cracked surface indicate the surface geology. Europa, which was discovered by Galileo in 1610, is of special interest to astronomers because it's believed to have a deep subsurface ocean with conditions favorable for life. The image was made from images taken by NASA's Galileo space probe in the late 1990s.