Astronomers discover planet made mostly of diamonds and twice the size of planet Earth and just 40 light years from Earth and orbits the binary star 55 Cancri. Planet named "55 Cancri e" located in the constellation of Cancer.
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| The diamond planet "55 Cancri e". (Picture from: http://www.extremetech.com/) |
The star is moving so fast that one year period only requires 18 hours of earth time. In addition to larger size, the planet has eight times the mass of Earth. It makes it has a density similar to Earth, although diamond planet previously thought to be more dense than the Earth.
The temperature at the surface reaches 1,648 degrees Celsius. "The surface of the planet is covered with graphite from diamond, not water and granite," said Nikku Madhusudhan, researchers from Yale University. The research that involve a number of scientists from the United States and France was estimated at less - one third of the planet's mass, which means equal to three times the mass of the Earth, consisting of diamonds, astronomers have found a planet made of diamonds before, but this time they find a new planet diamonds around a star like the Sun.
But why is 55 Cancri e made out of diamonds? Because the star system itself is primarily made up of carbon, iron, and silicon — and over millions of years of pressure and heat, the planet’s carbon mantle has slowly turned into diamond. The Yale scientists estimate that as much as one third of 55 Cancri e’s mass is made up of diamond — the same as three Earth masses, or roughly 18×1024kg. This is a few trillion times more diamond than has ever been mined on Earth.
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| The location of 55 Cancri, in the constellation of Cancer. (Picture from: http://www.extremetech.com/) |
"This is the first time we saw a rocky world with a different basic chemical composition of the earth," says Madhusudhan. The discovery of carbon-rich planet, he added, meaning a rocky planet can no longer be assumed to have the chemical elements, interior, atmosphere, or biological elements that are similar to Earth.
Astronomer David Spergel of Princeton University says it relatively easy to find the basic structure and history of the star after the star's mass and age diketahut. "The planet is much more complicated. Diamond-rich planet may be just one example of a number of discoveries waiting to be explored," he said. *** [REUTERS | SRI | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 25102012]
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