Joseph Harrington, an astronomer and professor at the University of Central Florida, United States, and his team found that there are more carbon than oxygen in the atmosphere is planet WASP-12b. Planet is 1200 light years from Earth.
These findings indicate that the rocks on the entire planet is composed of pure carbon, in the form of diamond or graphite. Although not yet certain, but the planet that is rich in carbon is likely to also have a diamond core in large numbers.
"In general, the planets generally have a very much amount of oxygen that makes rock such as quartz and gases like carbon dioxide could be available in large quantities," said Harrington.
However, Harrington said, if more carbon than oxygen, it will be a lot of rocks that consist of pure carbon such as diamond and graphite. In addition there will be a lot of methane gas.
The team conducted chemical analysis based on Spitzer Space Telescope NASA. They compared the infrared behavior of gases that exist to determine the atmospheric composition of planets in question.
Although carbon is one of the key elements that make up life, WASP-12b can not seem inhabited by living things.
"The distance is too close to its sun, planets and a year lasted only for 26 hours," said Harrington. "Temperatures in the daytime on the planet that is estimated diamond studded it's also very hot, reaching about 2,600 degrees Celsius. The planet was also damaged by the magnitude of its sun's gravitational force, "said Harrington.
For information, WASP-12b was first discovered by a consortium Wide Angle Search for Planets from England in the year 2009.
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