A Diamond Planet?

The Smithsonian Institution owns one of the largest and most expensive diamonds in the world. The Hope Diamond, which is approximately 45.552 carats weight and estimated to be worth around $400 million dollars. This was originally owned by Tavenier Louis XIV of France Henry Philip Hope. If you think this is a mind-blowing fact, can you imagine a planet full of diamonds?

Astronomers have discovered a planet that is orbiting a sun like star called 55 cancri (Also known as Rho Cancri). It is located just at the end of the Y-shaped constellation Cancer and is about 40 light-years away from Earth.

Astronomers have estimated that planet 55 Cancri e has a radius double the size of Earth’s radius (3959 miles) and that it is 8 times more massive than Earth, and because of this it is also been dubbed “Super-Earth”! After studying the planet is composed of atleast 1/3 of carbon, which is the core component of diamonds. They further revealed that its surface is mostly made up of graphite, underneath a thick layer of diamond. The diamond layer is over a deep layer of silicon-based minerals with molten core of iron.

The diamond composition on this planet is equivalent to 3 times the mass of the Earth! Researchers at Yale University estimated that this planet is estimated to value about a whopping $26.9 nonillion (30 zeros after 26.9). To get some human perspective to this number, the world’s GDP according to the World Bank is only about 142 Trillion (source: Statista 2019) USD, which has only 12 zeros.