the Diamond Planet

Did you miss this piece of news?

According to the Washington Post:

Diamond planet discovered by astronomers
"A diamond-crystal planet five times the size of Earth and with more mass than Jupiter has been discovered in our own Milky Way galaxy.

An international team of astronomers led by Swinburne University of Technology in Australia spotted the exotic planet racing around a tiny star 4,000 light years away and published their findings Thursday in the journal Science.."-more

According to CNET:

Astronomers: We've found a planet made of diamond "Perhaps the biggest frustration for astronomers is that they can't get to the places that most interest them.

So please imagine the excitement--and vexation--of skygazers who believe they have discovered a planet that might just be the shiniest piece of bling out there.

Reuters paints a picture of astronomers who feel like someone who has just been offered 27 carats over their chocolate pudding.

For there seems to be a planet orbiting tightly around a small star just down the road (in celestial terms) from Earth that is "a massive diamond." -more

And from the International Business Times:

The Milky Way’s Diamond Planet
"Professor Matthew Bailes of Melbourne, Australia's Swinburne University of Technology and his team of international astronomers have discovered a planet made of diamond in our Milky Way galaxy.

An exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard

With a 64-meter radio telescope situated in Parkes, Australia, the team of scientists from Australia, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, discovered the planet as it orbits a pulsar. A pulsar is described as a small spinning star that emits a beam of radio waves, which are then detected by Earth's radio telescopes as radio pulses. The pulsar and the planet were located 4,000 light years away in the Serpens constellation, which is part of the Milky Way's stars. The astronomers supported this discovery with further observations with the Lovell radio telescope in the United Kingdom and Keck telescopes in Hawaii." -more

Posted by BLODOX

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