A team of U.S-Franco scientists led by Yale University hit the jackpot by discovering not just another celestial body near the Earth, but one that it is likely to be covered in diamonds and it is twice the size of our planet.
“This is our first glimpse of a rocky world with a fundamentally different chemistry from Earth,” said in a press release lead researcher Nikku Madhusudhan, a Yale postdoctoral researcher in physics and astronomy.
The scientists said this new planet is likely covered in diamond and graphite rather than water and granite, like other celestial bodies. It also holds significant amounts of iron ore, silicon carbide, and, possibly, some silicates say the experts.
The rocky planet orbits a sun-like star, called 55 Cancri e, 40 light years away in the constellation of Cancer and is moving so fast that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours.
Diamond planets — carbon-rich rocky bodies— have been spotted before but this is the first time one has been seen orbiting a sun-like star and studied in such detail.
Follow-up observations of the planet’s atmosphere and additional estimates of the stellar composition would strengthen the findings about the planet’s chemical composition.
The paper titled “A Possible Carbon-rich Interior in Super-Earth 55 Cancri e,” which reports the findings has already been accepted for publication in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
12 Comments
online earth
Natural Resource on Earth
online earth
hi
nice site which tell us about carbonic acid.
Carbonic acid is formed by the reaction:
H2O (l) + CO2 (g) H2CO3 (aq)
and other information.
Naresh Bajaj
Yes now we should plan to mine other Planets and ,Astroids then in our Earth,
you have double benifits redusing the polution, keep our Planet Green. May
some time your welcomming Alians too. Cheers
Luciana E Eder
Hi friend, to keep our plannet green we need agriculture and livestock farming in other planets, it is not necessary stop mining here!
Richard
We need to carry out a serious Exploration in this new discovered planet……or what do you say?
zinyawgyi (mm)
A diamond is a diamond in the market where one sells at a price the other one buys.
Not in the outer space where a plane sheet of cellulose note with a president’s photo image wont buy anything.
Pez
If I’m the fist one there I shall claim it as my own and be super rich
lollerskates
Except as soon as you try to drop an entire planet of diamond onto the market you will crash it 🙂
Frogman17
Hey Pez, sorry but I doubt there are any WalMarts there, so where will you spend all that wealth. then again wealth is only wealth when it can be used as an exchange unit to trade for something yo desire t have.
Ciprian Popa
“…rather than water and granite, like most celestial bodies”? Where? When? Did you really mean that?
Ben Cox
The planet is visible with the naked eye? And most celestial bodies are covered with water and granite?
MINING.com Editors
Hello Ben,
Here you have the exact quote, word by word: “It is one of five planets orbiting a sun-like star, 55 Cancri, that is located 40 light years from Earth yet visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer.”
So, it is not the planet what is visible with the naked eye, but the star it orbits.
It is coming from a Yale University postdoctoral researcher in physics
and astronomy… Do I really need to justify what I say in the article further?
Cheers,