Twinkling stars are not the only diamonds in the sky. Scientists say they have discovered a “diamond planet” twice the size of Earth and eight times its mass, zooming around a nearby star.
In fact, this is not the first diamond planet ever discovered, but it is the first found orbiting a sun-like star and whose chemical make-up has been specified.
The discovery means that distant rocky planets can no longer be assumed to have chemical constituents, interiors, atmospheres or biologies similar to those of Earth, said lead researcher Nikku Madhusudhan, a Yale postdoctoral researcher in physics and astronomy.
The planet was first observed last year - but researchers initially assumed it was similar in its chemical make-up to Earth.
It was only after a more detailed analysis that the French-American research team determined the planet, dubbed 55 Cancri e, is vastly different from our own.
The planet “appears to be composed primarily of carbon (as graphite and diamond), iron, silicon carbide, and, possibly, some silicates,” the authors wrote in a statement ahead of their findings’ publication in the US journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
