A planet made of diamond has been discovered.Scientists say the planet of diamond may be having oxygen on the surface. The rocky planet, called ’55 Cancri e’, orbits a sun-like star in the constellation of Cancer and is moving so fast that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours.
The planet made of diamond was discovered by by a U.S.-Franco research team.The team of researchers was led by Nikku Madhusudhan of Yale University .The planet’s radius is twice that of Earth’s but it is much more dense with a mass eight times greater. It is extremely hot with temperatures
on its surface reaching 1,648 Celsius. Astronomers in Austrialia, the UK and Hawaii have been keeping their eyes on Pulsar J1719-1438 and its sparkly planet for some time now, and have come to the conclusion that not only does the planet have a diamond core, but may also have oxygen on the surface.
Lying 4,000 light years away, or around an eighth of the way toward the center of the Milky Way from the Earth, the planet is probably the remnant of a once-massive star that has lost its outer layers to the so-called pulsar star it orbits,the journal Science reported on Thursday.
Diamond planets have been spotted before but this is the first time one has been seen orbiting a sun-like star and studied in such detail.