canillasralphphillip@yahoo.

com RalphWindrunner
canillasralph@facebook.com (+63) 946 529 1869
EDITOR:
RALPH PHILLIP R. CANILLAS




Physicists have
used the world's
most powerful
laser to zap
diamonds. The
results, they say,
could tell us
more about the
cores of giant
planets.
"Diamonds have
very special
properties,
besides being very expensive and used for jewelry etc.," says Raymond Smith, a researcher
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. "It's the hardest substance known
to man."
And diamonds aren't just here on Earth. Diamonds are made of carbon, and carbon is one
of the most abundant elements in the universe. Scientists now believe that diamonds might
be relatively common, especially at the cores of giant planets.
That goes for the eighth planet in our solar system, Neptune. "There are studies suggesting
that Neptune has a diamond core," he says.
At least that's the theory. But the pressure at Neptune's center is enormous. Researchers
weren't sure what that would do to a diamond.
"Before these experiments scientists just did not have the capabilities at hand to generate
these high pressures," he says.
Livermore Lab has the world's most powerful laser, the National Ignition Facility. Smith and
colleagues used its 176 beams to squeeze a tiny diamond target. The team got up to 50
million atmospheres of pressure, that's about 10 times the density of the Earth's core.
The diamond at the center of the capsule was at the density of lead before it was vaporized
by the laser energy. The results, published in Nature, prove that diamond can withstand
this kind of crushing. More studies are being planned to see how its behavior might change.
So what expensive thing can Smith target next? Maybe caviar?
"We could compress caviar to very high pressure," he says. "But probably the practical and
planetary applications would be limited."
Physicists Crush Diamonds With Giant Laser