This discovery paves the way for a new way to produce nano-diamonds, which are increasingly useful in many applications, such as medical probes, non-invasive surgery or quantum electronics.
The industrial method of manufacturing nano-diamonds consists of subjecting carbon-rich materials to very strong explosions. “Laser production could offer a cleaner and more easily controllable method of nano-diamonds”said Benjamin Ofori-Okai, an SLAC scientist and co-author of the study.
As for those who already imagine being able to embark on an interstellar treasure hunt, they will have to wait a bit. To find out what is really going on in the heart of Neptune and Uranus, the most distant planets in the solar system, we will have to wait for future space missions. To date, only one NASA probe, Voyager 2, has crossed the two icy planets.