Rains on Different Worlds

DIAMONDS IN THE SKY-no, not a pop song, but reality, and here's why:

Uranus and Neptune's cores are theorized to contain diamond. Both ice/gas giants have a silicate/nickel (and iron in Neptune) core surrounded by an icy mantle; the intense pressure of the planets' huge size on the core leads to diamond formation. As for the diamond rain on Neptune, the conditions are such in the methane-rich envelope that in the supersonic water, methane decomposes creating a diamond hail storm.