For generations children have been singing nursery rhymes to compare stars of diamonds.
Now they can sing with some confidence, because a team of researchers from Australia, Germany, Italy, UK and USA have discovered what they believe is a diamond in the sky.
They have discovered a pulsar – a fast rotating neutron star – using data collected by CSIRO radio telescope in Parkes.
So on closer inspection they found that the pulsar was circled by another object, and through a process of calculation and elimination they decided that the object was a small planet made of diamonds.
“We have never seen anything like it before,” Baile told ABC Science on Friday.
“The production of such exotic planets is the exception rather than the rule, and requires special circumstances.”
Baile said the new planet is probably the remains of a once-massive star that has lost its outer layers in the so-called pulsar star it orbits.
Pulsars rotating stars with a diameter of about 20 km, which emits a beam of electro magnetic radiate on.
But progress has been rapid since then, and Professor Bail believes his latest discovery will open the door to a much better understanding of these small spinning stars.
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