Illustration of one of the exotic super-Earth candidates, 55 Cnc e, which are rich in sapphires and rubies and might shimmer in blue and red colors. Credit: Illustration Thibaut Roger
Posted on 12/28/2018 10:20:00 AM PST by Red Badger
Researchers have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our solar system. These so-called super-Earths were formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of calcium, aluminium and their oxides -- including sapphire and ruby.
21 light years away from us in the constellation Cassiopeia, a planet orbits its star with a year that is just three days long. Its name is HD219134 b. With a mass almost five times that of Earth it is a so-called "super-Earth." Unlike the Earth however, it most likely does not have a massive core of iron, but is rich in calcium and aluminium. "Perhaps it shimmers red to blue like rubies and sapphires, because these gemstones are aluminium oxides which are common on the exoplanet," says Caroline Dorn, astrophysicist at the Institute for Computational Science of the University of Zurich. HD219134 b is one of three candidates likely to belong to a new, exotic class of exoplanets, as Caroline Dorn and her colleagues at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge now report in the British journal MNRAS.
The researchers study the formation of planets using theoretical models and compare their results with data from observations. It is known that during their formation, stars such as the Sun were surrounded by a disc of gas and dust in which planets were born. Rocky planets like the Earth were formed out of the solid bodies leftover when the proto-planetary gas disc dispersed. These building blocks condensed out of the nebula gas as the disc cooled. "Normally, these building blocks are formed in regions where rock-forming elements such as iron, magnesium and silicon have condensed," explains Dorn who is associated to the NCCR PlanetS. The resulting planets have an Earth-like composition with an iron core.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Illustration of one of the exotic super-Earth candidates, 55 Cnc e, which are rich in sapphires and rubies and might shimmer in blue and red colors. Credit: Illustration Thibaut Roger
The moon’s surface contains lots of alumina—aluminum oxide. But unless it’s subjected to a lot of pressure far below the surface, enough to grow large sapphire and ruby crystals, it’s worthless.
Ah yes, another ‘science’ article designed to taunt the masses with riches beyond their wildest dreams. Next we’ll have planets made of premium unleaded gasoline and beer.
Jack Daniels!!!
Well, there’s enough natural gas on Titan to supply the entire Earth’s energy needs for a thousand years....................
Rubies and sapphires are routinely ‘grown’ in labs now. They are cheap..................
We already have planets made out of liquified natural gas and alcohol.
I’m waiting for the planet in the sky, that’s made of diamonds.
We could call it “Lucy”.
Planets made of pizza and chocolate ice cream...
There is a theory that ALL Gas Giants have diamond cores................
I’d prefer a Blended Planet..................
I read an article speculating that a burnt out star would be a solid diamond.
Planets like Uranus and Neptune have layers where carbon settles due to its density. The pressure is enough to form diamond—but liquid diamond. Farther down it’s believed the pressure is enough to solidify them again into huge sheets of solid diamond thousands of miles across. And since solid diamond floats in liquid diamond (like water ice in water), they would rain “up” through the liquid diamond until they melt again. So they say.
We just need to develop warp speed travel.
I can no longer deal with this level of indoctrination.
Real “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”!
And anti-gravity. Or you wont get off the surface of any planet with gravity 50% higher than Earths. (with chemical propulsion that is.)
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