Scientists Discovers a Nearby Diamond Planet

Scientists at Yale University have discovered a
nearby super-Earth that is a “diamond planet” — a
planet that has a mantle made of graphite and
diamond.
The planet, called 55 Cancri e, is just 40 light years
from Earth and orbits the binary star 55 Cancri,
which is located in the constellation of Cancer. When
the planet was first observed last year, it was
originally thought to be a water planet, similar to
Earth, but new information has allowed the scientists
to infer that the planet is much more likely to be a
diamond planet.
55 Cancri e (which
desperately needs
a nickname) is
referred to as a
super-Earth
because it is larger
than Earth, but not
as large as the
Solar System’s gas
giants. That’s
where 55 Cancri
e’s similarities to
Earth end, though. 55 Cancri e has twice the radius
of Earth, eight times the mass — and because it’s the
innermost planet in the 55 Cancri system, the planet
has a surface temperature of 3,900 degrees
Fahrenheit (2,150 Celsius), and its year lasts just 18
hours (as opposed to Earth’s 365 days).
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.
Suffice it to say, the identification of just a single
diamond-rich planet is massive news. In recent years
we have identified hundreds of rocky, Earth-like
planets — and until now, we had assumed they had
similar make-ups. It is now fairly safe to assume that
there are millions of diamond planets in the universe.
There could be other planets out there with different
chemistries, too — water planets, gold planets,
uranium planets — and each are likely to have very
different atmospheres, biologies, and geological/
tectonic characteristics.
The idea of mining other planets and asteroids for
valuable resources doesn’t seem quite so crazy now,
eh?



SOURCE: www.extremetech.com/extreme/137719-scientists-discover-nearby-diamond-planet