Scientists have discovered a planet said to be made primarily made out of diamond — twice as big as Earth. I think Kim Kardashian just fainted.
Discovered by researchers at Yale, the bling planet, scientifically referred to as 55 Cancri e, was found orbiting a sun-like star in the Cancer constellation. Initially thought to be similarly composed to Earth, the planet’s combination of elements was studied to find that 55 Cancri e largely consists of graphite, diamond and other minerals.
“By contrast, Earth’s interior is rich in oxygen, but extremely poor in carbon — less than a part in thousand by mass, said Yale geophysicist Kanani Lee.
An even wilder discovery, aside from the fact that most of the planet is pure diamond, is that a year on 55 Cancri e lasts just 18 hours. Imagine how old that would make you. The “super-Earth” has an estimated surface temperature of 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit, so don’t get any ideas about mining the planet in the future.
“The revelation of the planet’s diamond nature means that it could have very different thermal evolution and plate tectonics processors than Earth, which could create bizarre types of volcanism, seismic activity, and mountain formation,” Space.com wrote.
Despite the planet being about 40 light-years away, it’s supposedly visible to the naked eyes, though it’ll appear like any other star in the night sky. Still, finding an diamond that immense makes me wonder what else is out in the universe. A planet made of pure gold?
[via Space]
