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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.
1 tar | |
n.柏油,焦油;vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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2 silicates | |
n.硅酸盐( silicate的名词复数 ) | |
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3 quartz | |
n.石英 | |
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4 astronomers | |
n.天文学者,天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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5 wasp | |
n.黄蜂,蚂蜂 | |
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6 spectrum | |
n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列 | |
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7 methane | |
n.甲烷,沼气 | |
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8 chunks | |
厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 ); (某物)相当大的数量或部分 | |
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9 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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