Forget the diamond as big as the Ritz. This one’s bigger than planet Earth.
The universe just got a bit richer with the discovery of an apparent diamond-rich planet orbiting a nearby star.
Dubbed 55 Cancrie, the rocky world is only twice the size of Earth but has eight times its mass—classifying it as a “super Earth,” a new study says. First detected crossing in front of its parent star in 2011, the close-in planet orbits its star in only 18 hours. As a result, surface temperatures reach an uninhabitable 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,150 degrees Celsius)—which, along with carbon, make perfect conditions for creating diamonds.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope collected data on the planet’s orbital distance and mass, and resulting computer models created a picture of 55 Cancri e’s chemical makeup. “Science fiction has dreamed of diamond planets for many years, so it’s amazing that we finally have evidence of its existence in the real universe,” said study leader Nikku Madhusudhan, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. “It’s the first time we know of such an exotic planet that we think was born mostly of carbon—which really makes this a fundamental game-changer in our understanding of what’s possible in planetary chemistry.” At only 40 light-years away, in the northern constellation Cancer, the gemlike planet sits relatively near Earth. In dark skies, 55 Cancri e’s host star is clearly visible to the naked eye.
A diamond bigger than Earth?
