Washington-SANA
A recent US study showed that some carbon-rich exoplanets under the right conditions could be made of diamond and silica.
The study, conducted by scientists from the University of Arizona and Chicago, USA and published in the scientific journal (The Planetry Science Journal), indicated that exoplanets orbiting around carbon-rich stars may consist of diamonds due to the intense heat and pressure on these distant worlds, as well as the planets orbiting the stars. Those with high levels of carbon tend to be rich in carbon and under the right conditions carbon can become a diamond.
The scientists conducted simulations of the intense heat and pressure in the depths of these carbide exoplanets to test this hypothesis, and by using so-called diamond anvil cells, they pressed silicon carbide in water between diamonds at high pressure and then the samples were heated using a laser during the X-ray examinations.
The experiment confirmed scientists' expectations as silicon carbide would react with water to turn into diamond and silica.
The scientists said that in conjunction with current experiments at low pressure, our new experiments at high pressure show that water can convert silicon carbide into silica and diamond, and with our discovery that carbide planets will easily transform into silicate planets in the presence of water, the number of carbide planets present may be less than current expectations.
These exoplanets are unlike anything else in our solar system, and when planets and stars form, they do so in the same gas cloud drifting through space, so their mass formations are similar and are made of the same materials, said lead author of the study, Harrison Allen Sutter of Arizona State University.
And astronomers reported in 2012 the existence of an exoplanet orbiting the star 55 Cancri A made of diamond and graphite.