Astronomers in London have found what they believe is a planet made out of diamonds – Not Diamonds, just one planet size Diamond that is spinning around a tiny start that’s in our own backyard, figuratively speaking.
The new planet is believed to be denser than any other planet, and is believed to consist of mostly carbon. Because of it’s density, scientist think that the carbon must be crystalline, and therefore it should be made out of diamond. We’ve heard this line before hundreds of times, our astronomers see one thing, they assume another based on theories.
Matthew Bailes from Swinburne University of Technology in Melburne said “The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon — i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun,” the new planet is about 4,000 light years away spinning around a pulsar start; a very tiny dead neutron start that is only about 12 miles in diameter and they spin around hundreds of times a second spewing out beams of radiation in all different directions.
Baile and his team stated that the diamond planet which spins around every two hours and 10 minutes has more mass than Jupiter, but is about 20 times denser than Jupiter. Aside from just having Carbon, the planet might have Oxygen and lacks hydrogen and helium.
“In terms of what it would look like, I don’t know I could even speculate,” said Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester. “I don’t imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we’re looking at here.” if this planet did exist and we actually had technology to go out there and pick some chunks of it off, it would be amazing, until it sends the prices of diamonds down and then my wife’s ring would be worth nothing.
Via: Reuters
