A recent Astronomy Magazine article brought focus to the work of planetary scientists in recreating the atmospheric conditions on other planets in the solar system. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a free-electron x-ray laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, was employed in creating extremely rapid x-ray pulses lasting only a million-billionths of a second. This enabled observation at the atomic levels of processes that occur on Neptune and Uranus.
In the experiment, shock waves were induced in polystyrene, a plastic material containing the carbon and hydrogen abundant on both planets. Widely accepted theories held that methane within those planets’ atmospheres would transform into hydrocarbon chains under specific pressures and temperatures. The LCLS-aided findings bolster long-held assumptions that the atmosphere on these planets rains solid diamonds, rather than the liquid water experienced on Earth.