SSS 2010-12-09

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute?

Imagine climbing diamond mountains, or hiking around the graphite shores of a lake of tar¹. Sound a little sci-fi? Well a new discovery suggests planets like that might be out there—planets littered with carbon minerals, instead of the oxygen-rich silicates², like quartz³, that cover the Earth， because astronomers⁴ have found the first carbon-rich exoplanet, with more carbon than oxygen in its atmosphere—instead of the 1 to 2 carbon to oxygen ratio found in our solar system.

The exoplanet, called WASP⁵ 12 b, is a gas giant, like Jupiter. By taking the spectrum⁶ of heat radiating from the planet, the researchers found that the planet's atmosphere was loaded with carbon, in the form of carbon monoxide and methane⁷. The study appears in the journal Nature.

The finding suggests one commonly accepted model of planetary formation, where icy chunks⁸ glom into a core, wouldn't work here. Instead the core may have formed from carbon-rich fragments, like tar. But more than that, this unusual planet is more proof of the diversity of the universe—and it makes those dreams of diamond planets a tiny bit more plausible⁹.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Christopher Intagliata.