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Known as 'Pando,' this massive colony of Quaking Aspens in Utah appears to be a forest of 47,000 individual trees, but they are all genetically identical.

The Massive Root System:

• 🌱 One Single System: All 47,000 trees share a single, massive underground root system. It weighs an estimated 6,000 tons, making it the heaviest known organism.
• 🧬 Clonal Colony: Because they share the same DNA, when one 'tree' dies, the root system simply sends up a new sprout nearby to replace it.

Ancient Longevity:

• ⏳ Thousands of Years: While individual tree trunks live for about 130 years, the entire root system is estimated to be over 80,000 years old, surviving through many climate changes.

Deep within the atmospheres of the gas giants Neptune and Uranus, extreme pressure and heat create a spectacular weather phenomenon: diamond rain.

The Formation:

• 🧪 High pressure squeezes methane molecules, breaking them apart and compressing the carbon into solid diamond crystals
• 💎 These diamonds then sink through the icy mantles of the planets like glittering hailstones toward the core

The Scientific Simulation:

• 🔬 Scientists have used high-powered lasers to recreate these conditions on Earth, proving that carbon can turn into "nano-diamonds" instantly
• 🌌 It is estimated that some of these diamonds could grow to be millions of carats in size over time