Rich in carbon planet WASP-12 may hold life - and diamond (time)

Jupiter, on the left and the WASP-12 b

It is easy to go just a little nuts when you are studying exoplanets. Devote sufficient time to study the exotic chemistry, composition and environments of the worlds newly discovered in orbit around distant stars and you can begin to believe that anything is possible. Little, however, can match opportunities tale of WASP-12 b.

There is a high concentration of carbon into the atmosphere. On the other hand, there is the potential for life-loving methane. OH, and we did mention the vast tracts of land could be diamond? OK, some scientists - in fact, no - scientists believe that these specific conditions prevail over the WASP-12 b. But new discoveries about the atmosphere of the planet suggest that such an environment is possible on other worlds – perhaps even in the WASP-12 (b) own solar system. (See page 50 space since Sputnik top moments).

We're just last year that WASP-12 b was discovered by British researchers working in the search for Wide Angle planetary consortium - collaboration whose acronym gave the world its name. Approximately 1,200 light-years from Earth and 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter, the new world is on the side low, compared to some 500 exoplanets discovered since one was confirmed in the 1990s, but it seemed otherwise banal.

As described in a new paper in the journal nature, however, a team led by a researcher postdoctoral planet Nikku Madhusudhan at Princeton and planetary scientist Joe Harrington of the University of Florida Central used telescope Spitzer Space NASA Watch the WASP-12 b during one of its orbit, particularly in the moments before that she spent behind his house star. In those brief moments the star light would flow to the atmosphere of the planet, allowing astronomers to study wavelengths produced and deduct the chemical composition of the atmosphere. They combined their results with those taken independently by a telescope in Hawaii - based and when they got their surprise. (Read on a new planet outside the Milky).

In General, the class of planets which includes WASP-12 b - known astronomers as extremely hot Jupiters - atmospheres with a ratio of carbon - to-oxygen for approximately 0.5. In this case, however, there are more than two times the concentration of carbon as usual and methane almost 100 times as much as expected.

"This is the first carbon-rich planet ever found," said Madhusudhan. "Now that we have found one, we know there may be many more out there." See photos from the hand of the space exploration work.

Has big implications for alien biology, from life as we know it is based on the carbon and - which is composed of carbon and hydrogen - methane is a by-product of the metabolism. WASP-12 b is too hot for life (once again, we know) and no solid surface. But his brother planets may be a different matter. Solar systems are formed when the clouds of gas and dust swirling around of a star begin to coalesce - and later, when rocks and planetesimals are the result of this process of collide and merge more large bodies. Since all worlds would be made of the same stellar raw material, each of them have similar chemistry - rich in carbon chemistry in this case. Some of the planets formed with WASP-12 b would not easily smaller made rock formations with silica, such as land, but graphite or - given sufficient time and enough pressure - something much more valuable. "A carbon-rich world, you may have large reliefs of pure diamond," said Madhusudhan. (Comment on this story).

Heavy carbon planet's atmosphere could retain heat and light, providing energy for life to begin and prosper. Life would survive on relatively low oxygen and water and had to be very tolerant of methane. In some respects, however, those biological rounded errors, especially when many organic components in the mixture. Remarkable forms of life are turning all time in extreme environments on Earth, not least because agencies have recently announced in mono Lake California can survive on arsenic - a toxic substance resolutely for us.

None of this proves that somewhere in the Galaxy, exotic creatures, methane breathing are indeed freedom, delimitation in landscapes of diamonds. But the fact that such a possibility, however remote, is plausible discussed is thinking very little we know of the cosmos - and how we are beginning to learn.

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