A diamond bigger than Earth? (Video)

Skooter reporting 10/15/12

A planet made out of diamonds and bigger than Earth, it’s amazing! So forget the diamond as big as the Ritz. This one's bigger than what we have here.

Astronomers have discovered an orbiting planet that is visible to the naked eye, and is 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 would you believe this, it is moving at high-speed that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours.

U.S.-Franco research team discovered the planet, its radius double that of Earth's with a mass eight times greater. That would give it the same density as Earth, though previously observed diamond planets are said to be a lot thicker. It is also extremely hot, with temperatures on its surface reaching 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,648 Celsius).

Nikku Madhusudhan, the Yale researcher whose findings are expected to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters was quoted as saying, "The surface of this planet is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite.”.

It is estimated that at least a third of the planet’s mass, the equivalent of about three Earth masses, could be diamond, Olivier Mousis at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in Toulouse, France said. Although diamond planets have been discovered before but 55’Cancr-e is the only planet that has been spotted for the first time orbiting a sun-like star and studied in such detail.

Any fortune-hunter not deterred by "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", F.Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age morality tale of let down selfishness, will find Cancri e about 40 light years, or 230 trillion miles, from Park Avenue.

Reuters