Question #31723. Asked by confused.
Last updated Jun 13 2021.
sequoianoir
Answer has 4 votes
sequoianoir 21 year member
2091 replies
Answer has 4 votes.
Are we talking diamonds as in carbon / jewel or the weather condition?
Diamond dust (ice needles, frost in the air, frost mist) is a type of precipitation composed of slowly falling, very small, unbranched crystals of ice which often seem to float in the air. It may fall from a high cloud or from a cloudless sky. It usually occurs under frosty weather conditions (under very low air temperatures.)
Response last updated by postcards2go on Aug 25 2016.
Apr 16 2003, 2:01 PM
Kainantu
Answer has 7 votes
Currently Best Answer
Kainantu
Answer has 7 votes.
Currently voted the best answer.
Black
The team, led by Benedetti and Raymond Jeanloz, professor of geology and geophysics, ...inside a diamond anvil cell, squeezing liquid methane to several hundred thousand times atmospheric pressure. When they focused a laser beam on the pressurized liquid, heating it to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, diamond dust appeared.
"It's really cool to watch," said Benedetti. "When you turn on the laser, the methane turns black because of all the diamonds created. The black diamond specks float in a clear hydrocarbon liquid melted by the laser."
Response last updated by CmdrK on Jun 13 2021.
Apr 18 2003, 4:36 AM
McGruff
Answer has 5 votes
McGruff Moderator 24 year member
3694 replies
Answer has 5 votes.
Question #42317. ellie42 asks:
What colour is "diamond dust?"
Siskin answers:
several pictures, here
A solar halo - also known as a nimbus, icebow or gloriole - is an optical phenomenon produced by ice crystals creating colored or white arcs and spots in the sky. Many are near the sun or moon but others are elsewhere and even in the opposite part of the sky. They can also form around artificial lights in very cold weather when ice crystals called diamond dust are floating in the nearby air.
Diamond dust, as in the weather phenomenon, is colorless. Any color it appears to have is due to the refraction of light.
Diamond dust, the industrial product, is black or gray due to the color of the stones ground to make it.
Dec 15 03, 9:35 AM
Response last updated by postcards2go on Aug 25 2016.
Mar 18 2008, 8:26 AM