Astronomers discover a planet made purely of diamond

26 Aug 2011

Astronomers discover a planet made purely of diamond

We shall name thee ‘Planet Bling!’ Astronomers have apparently discovered a planet apparently made entirely out of diamond and half as wide as Planet Jupiter.

According to the New Scientist, a team of astronomers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne discovered the planet by telescope.

A radio survey of the sky detected a powerful pulsar using the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales.

A follow-up observation with the Lovell radio telescope in the UK revealed that the pulsar was one of 1800 known pulsars that are known to harbour planets.

Even more astonishing their studies revealed that planet is made entirely out of diamond.

The diamond planet, Planet Bling, orbits the pulsar at a distance of 600,000 kilometres – 1.5 times the distance of the moon from Earth.

According to the New Scientist, the core of a stripped down star would be mostly carbon and because of its mass this carbon has been crystalised into diamond, in the same way that carbon is crystalised deep inside the Earth.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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