●Here on Earth, we're used to a certain kind of weather. It might be unpredictable and scary at times, but at least we know that everything falling out of our atmosphere and onto the ground is water in some form or another. You'd be excused, therefore, for thinking "water" when considering the question of rain on other planets but you'd be wrong all the same. Earth is the only planet that has liquid water. There is indeed rain falling from clouds on other planets, but it's not water, not even close.
Diamonds: About 1,000 tons (907 metric tons) a year fall on Saturn. But before you start devising a way to make a fortune by collecting diamonds in outer space, we need to tell you that this isn't a cold, hard fact. It's still an unpublished theory, a theory by planetary scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but unproven nonetheless.
According to the findings, diamond rain falls on Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter, among others, but Saturn might have the best conditions for it. Saturn's intense lightning storms (10 strikes per second!) can cause the methane molecules in its atmosphere to break up, leaving carbon atoms to float freely and start falling to the ground .They transform into graphite as they travel through Saturn's dense, layered atmosphere and eventually get pressurized into tiny diamond pieces (most are less than a millimeter in diameter).
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Sulfuric Acid: Venus's atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid clouds, but because the surface of the planet hovers at 894℉ (480℃), the rain only gets about as close as 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) to the surface before it becomes a gas.
Icy Methane: On Titan, Saturn's largest moon, there are icy methane rainstorms. Just as Earth has a water cycle, Titan has a methane cycle: There are seasonal rains, the methane rain fills up lakes, the lakes eventually evaporate and the vapor ascends into the clouds, starting the whole thing over again. Methane is in its liquid form on Titan because the surface temperature is an extremely chilly -290℉ (-179 ℃). There are also solid-ice mountains on Titan.
Glass: The alien planet HD189733b is 63 four-year from Earth. Scientists say it gets its beautiful blue color from a rain of molten glass.
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(Illustration depicting HD189733b)
The gas giant planet is located close to its sun, which causes temperatures to reach more than 1,800℉ (1,000℃) and results in glass rain that moves at 4,350 mph (7,000 km/h).
A/N: Hey people! I've been updating a lot lately, since I don't have school because of snow and extreme weather conditions, so here's another chapter, I hope it was interesting! I don't know when I'll get down to writing the next chapter, but I hope to see you soon!
