Over the years, countless poets and songwriters have described the night sky as looking as if it were full of diamonds. As it turns out, there could be some truth in that.
On Earth, natural diamonds are formed when carbon-containing minerals are mixed with high pressure and heat over billions of years.
当地球上的含碳矿物经受了数十亿年的高压高温，天然钻石就形成了。
Within the faraway icy planets of Neptune and Uranus, however, it’s believed that diamonds are formed in a more interesting way.
然而在遥远的寒冷星球海王星和天王星上，人们认为钻石的形成方式更加有趣。
The planets, which are both around four times bigger than Earth, are each covered by an ocean made up of water and hydrocarbons.
这两颗行星都比地球要大4倍左右，表面上都覆盖着由水和碳氢化合物组成的海洋。
It’s believed that the huge pressure and high temperatures within the planets lead to diamonds being created from the ocean’s hydrocarbons. These diamonds then “rain” down to the center of the planets.
But while this has always just been a theory, a team of researchers recently decided to try it out for themselves.
尽管这一说法向来只是个理论，一组研究人员最近却决定亲自进行实验。
According to a study published in the science journal Nature Astronomy in August, the scientists attempted to create “diamond rain” by firing lasers at polystyrene, a common plastic material that’s very much like the hydrocarbons on the two planets.
Using special equipment, the researchers managed to create conditions like those on Neptune and Uranus. They used two kinds of lasers, creating a similar temperature and pressure to those found around 10,000 kilometers inside the planets.
Following their brief experiment, the team discovered that they had created diamonds successfully, although they were onlya few nanometers in diameter.
研究团队在简短的实验过后发现，他们成功地创造出了钻石，尽管这些钻石直径只有几纳米。
However, Dominik Kraus, co-author of the study, believes that deep within Neptune and Uranus, the diamonds would be a lot bigger. According to Kraus, they could also be the reason why the inner layers of the ice giants are so hot.
“These diamonds will sink down …and when they sink down, there will be friction with the surrounding area … and all this generates heat,” he wrote in the study.
It’s hoped that the findings could eventually lead to easier and cheaper ways of creating artificial diamonds, which are used in everything from jewellery to machinery.
人们希望，这些发现最终能带来更简单经济的制造人造钻石的方法，能够应用于从珠宝业到机械业的方方面面。
But until scientists discover how to truly fill the sky with diamonds, we’ll just have to stick with songs and poetry.
