Tech Desk 
Oct 05, 2024
Just imagine a planet of diamonds and it sparkles in the vast reaches of space. Sounds like science fiction. NASA has discovered PSR J1719-1438b, a giant planet composed mainly of crystalline carbon, the same material found in diamonds.
PSR J1719-1438b planet details
PSR J1719-1438b is a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a K-type star, sitting farther from our solar system. It has a mass 1.2 times that of Jupiter yet is an astonishingly small object at only 40% the size of Jupiter.
However, scientists believe this was once a star but lost its outer envelopes to a nearby neutron star, revealing its diamond-rich core.
Read more: X9.0 Solar Flare likely to bring northern lights this weekend
It has been speculated by researchers that PSR J1719-1438b has cooled out of a star. The star had been shrinking, and in doing so, it crystallised the carbon inside and made this gigantic diamond planet.
Interestingly, this is an amazing process, the incredible ways of constituting cosmic bodies; the planetary assemblies can be quite unexpected and show great dazzle.
PSR J1719-1438b orbital radius
PSR J1719-1438b takes only 0.1 days to complete its orbit of the star with which it orbits; at such a close proximity of 0.0044 AU.
