Diamond Planet Discovered By Astronomers (VIDEO)

The nursery song "twinkle twinkle, little star" might have a whole new meaning now that astronomers have found a planet they believe to be made almost entirely of diamonds.

Scientists say the planet exists about 4,000 light years away from Earth, and is probably the remnants of a once-large dead star, Reuters reports. (Scroll down for video.)

"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon," Matthew Bailes of the University of Technology in Melbourne told Reuters. He calls it "a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun."

The Daily Mail reported that, even though the planet is small in size, it has slightly more mass than the planet Jupiter.

Scientists were able to find the planet by tracking its companion star, or a pulsar, using the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.

As to what the diamond planet looks like, Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester told The Macadonean International News Agency (MINA) it's probably not what everyone pictures: "I don't know I could even speculate. I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're looking at here."

Astronomers detected a similar planet in December 2010, only 1,200 light years away.

WATCH:

Comments

[Yoela Koplow]

12:47 AM on 09/29/2011

Dude, if it's in the middle of nowhere, we've found midnight. Now comes the matter of alerting The Doctor and Jethro...
No in all seriousness, this is brilliant. It's totally fantastic and cool

[Asmodean1]

11:29 AM on 09/09/2011

Just think of the tthings that could quite possibly be found here in our own solar system. Things we could get and use possibly in our life times. Things that could change the world. Things that could end our energy worries. A lot of things - To many "things"?

[maryann traveller]

09:47 AM on 09/09/2011

OMG The jewelers in NY are trying to figure a way to get there first!!!

[Tmboy]

09:36 AM on 09/09/2011

That is pretty cool. I've always wondered... and people can educate me about this. Why is it that NASA bases whether life is present on a planet based on how life developed on this planet? I know it’s all we have to go on, but I never hear about the possibility that life on other planets may have evolved in a completely different way.

Considering all the weird stuff that our own bodies do, is it not possible that somewhere far away there is a body that breaths in methane, exhale carbon monoxide and drinks mercury. OR even still maybe there are compounds in other galaxies that do not exist in this galaxy that allows life and evolution that is drastically different from ours?

FYI: I'm a lawyer not a scientist, I’ve just always wondered.

[Asmodean1]

11:25 AM on 09/09/2011

I Personally have never heard a individual from NASA make a statement to that effect. I have however, heard the reporters and others reporting on the stories from NASA make this issue. Also from politicians, clergy and lay people.

[Zadoc-Paet]

01:34 PM on 08/28/2011

Appearently this "planet" is the result of material being sucked into the pulsar, leaving behind carbon. It seems likely that the original body was a star. This is the problem with planetary definitions, they don't consider how an object formed as a part of the criteria, which is just stupid.

POLL: Should the "diamond planet" really be considered a planet?
Vote: http://www.wepolls.com/p/2077133

[snackynak]

06:19 PM on 08/28/2011

I'd say no, it's a star remnant. However, stellar and planetary formation are very similar, the big difference being that a star is massive enough and contains light enough material to start fusion. Jupiter could have been a star, if it were a bit more massive. So if a planet could be 'upgraded' to a star during formation, could a star be 'downgraded' at the end of it's life, so long as it met all of the other criteria? I think an argument could be made.

[LMPE]

05:57 PM on 08/27/2011

Has Rick Perry proposed drilling there yet?

[Ben Randle]

01:02 PM on 08/27/2011

Rush ladies, rush before the lady your next door gets there. This reminds of California Gold Rush. Will the ladies have means to get there? Read at: http://passivevoices.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/a-weird-world-of-diamond-can-it-attract-another-california-gold-rush/

[Tommy6860]

10:43 PM on 08/26/2011

What I find really sad, are most of the comments here, is that it degraded from a completely uninformed article, into materialism regarding Debeers and diamonds being a girl's best friend meme. It's no f'ing wonder why the US is getting worse in the world of math and science.

[1 man]

06:27 AM on 08/27/2011

Well you have to realize the Internet gave a forum to people who used to have to wait until they were in middle age to sit on a bar stool and mouth off about subjects as though they actually knew something.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

11:03 PM on 08/28/2011

You do realize don't you that if we were able to GET to that planet (if planet it truly is) it would render Debeers' horde of diamonds virtually worthless don't you. In the original Day the Earth Stood Still, Klatu carried diamonds as currency, he said 'they are common through out the Galaxy.

[Labrat33]

09:06 PM on 08/26/2011

Diamond is hard; it is not dense. The specific gravity of diamond is 3.51. Iron, for example, is 7.86. An "amazing density" certainly doesn't suggest diamond. As the core of the earth is believed to be comprised largely of iron, earth is likely to be more dense than diamond. Their conjecture, then, is pure fantasy and not based on scientific data. Many astronomers are either not actually scientists or they lie, probably to obtain funding. As with the "darkest planet" or the "mars rock," their claims are easily refuted. Those who report this stuff certainly are not scientists.

[Tommy6860]

10:37 PM on 08/26/2011

I'm glad someone else saw this and too add to this bit of misinformation, they did say that this mass of a "diamond" is orbiting a neutron star. Those are among the densest objects known from massive stars (after going super nova) collapsing upon themselves. Interestingly and along what you said about iron, neutron stars are made of almost all (obviously) neutrons with some iron nuclei at the surface (though that is only speculated) after finishing all of its nuclear fusion processes. In order of nuclear fusion that forms a NS: Hydrogen to Helium to Carbon to Oxygen to Silicon to Iron.

I seriously frown on creationism, but this is almost worse than that :/

[snackynak]

05:54 PM on 08/28/2011

If you read the article, they say "diamond-like":
-The density means that this material is certain to be crystalline, that is, a large part of the star may be *similar* to a diamond.-

But what it seems the article suggests, is that it is a white dwarf remnant that is a companion to the neutron star, giving the neutron star an energy boost. So I think the title is what is really misleading, as the object is not a planet, it's a dead star. White dwarfs, typically are made mostly of carbon

-White dwarfs are thought to be the final evolutionary state of all stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star—over 97% of the stars in our galaxy. After the hydrogen–fusing lifetime of a main-sequence star of low or medium mass ends, it will expand to a red giant which fuses helium to carbon and oxygen in its core by the triple-alpha process. If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the core temperatures required to fuse carbon, around 1 billion K, an inert mass of carbon and oxygen will build up at its center. After shedding its outer layers to form a planetary nebula, it will leave behind this core, which forms the remnant white dwarf. Usually, therefore, white dwarfs are composed of carbon and oxygen-

[dumosumo]

07:13 PM on 08/30/2011

This reinforces my suspicion that the planet is actually Cubic Zirconia.

[gra8whit]

08:54 PM on 08/26/2011

Of course, diamonds aren't that scarce. DeBeers maintains an artificial scarcity. All that mining goes to DeBeers and they hoard them and distribute them in a trickle to keep the retail price up. I'm seriously thinking about never buying my wife another diamond.

[nativetexanzach]

08:27 PM on 08/26/2011

They found Midnight! Molto bene! (Actually, maybe it's not so good...) Do they make Xtonic sunglasses?

[wilray]

08:41 PM on 08/26/2011

Midnight was exactly what I was thinking of. Allons-y.

I was also thinking that they mention this big diamond and a lot of platinum - sounds like the makings of a ring for a celestial wedding.

[Basselope]

04:20 PM on 08/27/2011

F&F for posting almost word for word what I was coming here to post!!!

4 hours 30 minutes left to the new episode!!

[TheSarge]

07:53 PM on 08/26/2011

I bet DeBeers is already planning to scrape this rock as well.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

11:06 PM on 08/28/2011

First they will have to get there, and it will be a very long time before humans develop a means of easily traveling that distance.

[Joshua Hamrick]

02:39 AM on 09/09/2011

they can fund the making of this spacecraft on credit, and upon return, pay for it in diamonds. magic.

[SiriusMrE]

06:07 PM on 08/26/2011

YAY! More astronomy cartoons! This one stars that other favorite imaginary character: "Neutron Star!"

"Another possibility, one not considered by contemporary astrophysicists, is that electrical oscillations are causing the rapid flicker of pulsars. The regular frequency is not mechanically generated. Instead, it is the capacitive, resistive and inductive electrical environment around the star. Compacted matter and extreme rotation are not necessary. Electricity traveling through circuits provides a coherent explanation that is consistent with commonly accepted electromagnetic theories, as well as with laboratory experiments."
Pulsar Convolutions: http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2010/arch10/100527convolutions.htm

[cre8iveman]

07:09 PM on 08/26/2011

Coherent explanation? You're such a phony. And you think nobody knows!

[SiriusMrE]

03:43 PM on 08/29/2011

Yes.

I am quite real, I assure you.

I "think nobody knows" what, exactly? I am sure that I have no idea what you mean.

[palindrom]

06:10 PM on 08/27/2011

So you think it's an LRC circuit? With a frequency stability of 1 part in 10 to the 12th or so? Why does it spin down exactly like a flywheel? Why does the crab's spindown rate match the energy requirements of the nebula? And so on, and on, and on -- I can think of about two dozen fatal objections to that theory off the top of my head.

Some of us actually study these things for a living, and we know much more about the phenomena, and respect the facts much more closely, than you give us credit for. We'll never convince you folks, though, because cranks are immune to reason.

[mdog002]

05:49 PM on 08/26/2011

"Picture yourself on a methane river, with tarry mountains and carbon monoxide skies."

[lmwj]

05:38 PM on 08/26/2011

So now you found a planet to make the girls happy, go look for one that has a golf course!