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A Diamond Planet Bigger Than Earth?
LONDON (Reuters) – Forget the diamond as big as the Ritz. This one’s bigger than planet Earth.
Orbiting a star that is visible to the naked eye, astronomers have discovered a planet twice the size of our own made largely out of diamond.
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.
Discovered by a U.S.-Franco research team, its radius is twice that of Earth’s and its mass is eight times greater. It is also incredibly hot, with temperatures on its surface reaching 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,148 Celsius).
“The surface of this planet is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, the Yale researcher whose findings are due to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Read more here at: http://news.yahoo.com/diamond-bigger-earth-075749061.html
This is pretty amazing. It seems there have been so many interesting discoveries in space lately and they are always captivating.
~Ophelia
