Scientists have discovered that there might be diamonds on Mercury, which is the smallest planet in our solar system. These diamonds would be about 15-18 kilometers deep and are thought to be formed when the core of Mercury cools down. This process could be happening on some other planets too, if they have a similar chemistry.
The idea is that Mercury’s core has a lot of carbon in it, which can form into diamonds as it cools down. But because Mercury is so hot, the diamonds would only form at depths of about 500 kilometers below the surface.
A future mission called BepiColombo will study Mercury from orbit and could possibly find out if there are diamonds on its surface. The scientists are excited to see what this mission might discover.
Some experts think that this idea is plausible, but it’s still an educated guess because we can’t directly measure the interior of Mercury. They believe that future missions or experiments in labs could help confirm or rule out this theory.
In summary, scientists have proposed a possible way for diamonds to form on Mercury and are excited about the prospect of discovering more about this phenomenon with future missions and research.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/31/science/mercury-diamond-underground-layer/index.html