九乡新闻网青藏铁路 印度:天文学家发现钻石星球 距地球四千光年
来源：百度文库 编辑：九乡新闻网 时间：2024/04/29 06:18:51
It is certainly what you could call a gem of a discovery. Astronomers believe they have found an entire planet made of diamonds. Scientists at the University of Manchester think they have unearthed a once-massive star in the Milky Way that has been transformed into a small planet made of the precious rock.
在这个通货膨胀危机四伏的时代，这个发现绝对会让所有想让自己资产保值的人眼前为之一亮，据悉，来自英国曼彻斯特大学的天文学家发现一颗奇特的“钻石行星”，这颗行星位于银河系、其密度远大于任何已知的行星，主要成分是碳。由于密度超高，科学家认为，这颗行星的碳极可能是结晶体，这就意味这个星球到处都是如假包换的钻石。
The international research team first detected an unusual star, called a pulsar, and followed up their discovery with research using a telescope based in an observatory in Cheshire. The findings led the scientists to discover the gravitational pull of a small companion planet orbiting the pulsar. Pulsars are small spinning stars more than ten miles in diameter – the size of a small city – that emit a beam of radio waves.
据悉，发现这颗“钻石行星”是之前先因探测到“脉冲星”而碰巧发现的。脉冲星是一种源自恒星坍塌死亡并发生超新星爆发之后的残留物(俗称“恒星尸体”)，能有规律地发出强烈的电磁辐射。当这颗“钻石”行星围绕脉冲星J1719-1438运行时，脉冲星不断地对这颗行星进行着电磁波透视。碰巧的是，这颗脉冲星的辐射会有规律地扫过地球，设在澳大利亚、英国以及美国的天文望远镜都分别观测到过这种辐射。因脉冲星对“钻石行星”进行辐射，而最终让我们发现它。
The team, also made up of scientists from Australia, Germany, Italy and the United States, thinks that the ‘diamond planet’ is all that remains of the original star, most of whose matter was siphoned off towards the pulsar. The companion planet is small, at less than 40,000 miles wide – about five times the diameter of Earth.
来自澳大利亚、德国、意大利以及美国的科学家团队认为这颗“钻石行星”是脉冲星的残留物，它的质量比木星稍大，密度却足足是木星的20倍。这颗钻石行星距离地球大约4000光年(6.44万公里)，大约是地球直径的5倍。
Research team member Dr Michael Keith said: 'This remnant is likely to be largely carbon and oxygen, because a star made of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium would be too big to fit the measured orbiting times.' The density means that this material is certain to be crystalline, that is, a large part of the star may be similar to a diamond.
科研组成员博士Dr Michael Keith 说：“这颗行星可能主要由碳和氧组成。而倘若由氢和氦组成的话，星球可能会因太大而不适宜轨道测量。”密度测量结果意味着这些物质一定是水晶，而被许多人珍视的钻石，实质是碳元素的单质晶体。也就是说，那颗行星的大部分可能都与钻石类似。