Carbon Planet - Possible Planets

Possible Planets

The pulsar PSR 1257+12 may possess carbon planets that formed from the disruption of a carbon-producing star. Carbon planets might also be located near the galactic core or globular clusters orbiting the galaxy, where stars have a higher carbon-to-oxygen ratio than the Sun. When old stars die, they spew out large quantities of carbon. As time passes and more and more generations of stars end, the concentration of carbon, and carbon planets, will increase.

In August 2011, Matthew Bailes and his team of experts from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia reported that the millisecond pulsar PSR J1719-1438 may have a binary companion star that has been crushed into a much smaller planet made largely of solid diamond. They deduced that a small companion planet must be orbiting the pulsar and causing a detectable gravitational pull. Further examination revealed that although the planet is relatively small (60,000 km diameter, or five times bigger than the Earth) its mass is slightly more than that of Jupiter. The high density of the planet gave the team a clue to its likely makeup of carbon and oxygen - and suggested the crystalline form of the elements. However, this "planet", is theorized to be the remains of an evaporated white dwarf companion, being only the remnant inner core. According to some definitions of planet, this would not qualify, as it formed as a star.

In October 2012, it was announced that 55 Cancri e showed evidence for being a carbon planet. It has eight times the mass of Earth, and twice the radius. Nikku Madhusudan, the Yale researcher, whose findings are due to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters says that the 3,900°F planet is warmish — and is “covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite”. It orbits a star in the constellation of Cancer and completes a revolution that takes Earth about 365 days in 18 hours.