Can Diamond Dust Really Help Cool the Earth by Reflecting Sunlight?
A team of climate and earth scientists are exploring an idea that sounds almost unbelievable: using diamond dust to cool the planet. This approach aims to slow down global warming by reflecting sunlight back into space. The method they are considering is called solar geoengineering, which involves adding specific particles into the atmosphere to reduce heat reaching the Earth. The goal is to address climate change head-on, beyond the efforts of simply reducing greenhouse gases.
The most commonly studied material for this purpose has been sulphur dioxide. While it can reflect sunlight, it brings several risks, such as acid rain and damage to the ozone layer. To find a better alternative, scientists have been looking at other aerosols that could have the same reflective power but with fewer side effects.
The Diamond Dust Proposal
Researchers at ETH Zurich, including teams from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, conducted a study testing various particles for their potential to cool the Earth. These included materials like calcite, aluminium, and even diamond dust. They used a complex climate model to understand how each substance would interact with heat and sunlight and how long the particles would stay in the air.
The results surprised them: diamond dust emerged as one of the best candidates. It reflects more light and heat than other materials and doesn’t carry the same environmental risks as sulphur dioxide. Since diamonds are chemically inert, they are less likely to cause issues like acid rain.
However, the costs are staggering. To achieve the necessary cooling effect, they estimate it would require around 5 million tonnes of synthetic diamond dust each year. The price tag? Approximately $200 trillion over several decades.
Challenges in Implementation
Even if money was no issue, there are other challenges. Producing diamond dust at such a scale requires technology we currently don’t have. Distributing it around the globe is another obstacle, as specialised aircraft would be needed to deploy it at the right altitude. This approach would also require international cooperation and thorough regulation to avoid geopolitical tensions.
While this proposal might not be viable right now, it represents the creative lengths scientists are exploring to combat the growing climate crisis.
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Science
Scientists Reportedly Found a Potential Sign of Life on a Distant Planet: What You Need to Know
Astronomers have revealed that the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, a massive network of galaxies, might be bigger than they realised. By mapping the cosmos with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)—the brightest explosions in the universe—astronomers found that this structure is even bigger than previously estimated. Surprisingly, portions of it also lie significantly closer to Earth than previously believed, challenging fundamental assumptions about how the universe is structured and evolves.
This cosmic structure was first observed in 2014 — a dense galaxy forming a filament of a supercluster.
A new study now extends the researchers’ previous work, but with a wider GRB sample. Hakkila and Zsolt Bagoly, authors of the study, have refined the measurements. They detected a number of relatively nearby GRBs in their sample. The evidence also shows the Great Wall is larger and wider than previously predicted.
Gamma-Ray Bursts Expose Structure Too Large for Current Models
According to a Space.com report, the GRBs figure prominently in the early discovery and more recent growth of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall. These explosive outbursts — from either collapsing massive stars or colliding neutron stars — produce powerful jets that can be spotted over cosmological distances. Hakkila told the publication that GRBs act as another bright beacon for identifying galaxies, even those too faint to see directly. Because of their brightness, scientists can follow matter throughout the universe more distinctly than ever.
The Great Wall, over 10 billion light-years long, challenges the cosmological principle of uniform universe appearance. Its massive size indicates gaps in current theories and implies that the universe’s formation time was insufficient for such massive structures.
THESEUS May Reveal Full Scale of Cosmic Great Wall
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Burst observations reveal 542 GRB events, but more data is needed to fully understand the Great Wall’s scope due to misidentified origins and sparse sampling. Hakkila points toward the upcoming ESA mission THESEUS — the Transient High Energy Sources and Early Universe Surveyor — as the next major leap.
The mission aims to dramatically expand the catalogue of known GRBs, particularly at extreme distances. “It could finally provide the observational leverage needed to map the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall to its full extent,” Hakkila told Space.com, emphasising its role in refining our understanding of the universe’s large-scale structure.
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