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Exoplanet Strikes Carbon Pay Dirt
存在钻石星球？

Imagine climbing diamond mountains, or hiking around the graphite shores of a lake of tar. 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 silicates, like quartz, that cover the Earth. Because astronomers 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.
想像着去攀登钻石山脉， 或者去焦油湖的石墨岸边远足，听起来有点科幻小说的味道。不过一项新发现表明那样的星球有可能是存在的，行星上富氧硅酸盐，比如遍布地球的石英被遍地散落 的碳矿物取代。原因就在于天文学家发现了首颗富碳地外行星，它的大气中碳含量多过氧含量，而不是我们太阳系里所发现的碳氧比1:2的系数。

The exoplanet, called WASP 12 b, is a gas giant, like Jupiter. By taking the spectrum 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 methane. The study appears in the journal Nature. [Nikku Madhusudhan et al., "A high C/O ratio and weak thermal inversion in the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-12b"]
这颗被称为WASP 12 b的地外行星是一个巨大的气体行星，就像木星那样。研究人员从它的热辐射光谱中发现它的大气层中存在着以一氧化碳和甲烷形式存在的碳元素。这项研究发表在《自然》杂志上。

The finding suggests one commonly accepted model of planetary formation, where icy chunks 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 plausible.
这项发现表明行星形成的一个普适模型并不适用于其核心有冰冻块存在的行星。相反，该核心可能由富碳物质比如说焦油中形成。但更重要的是，这颗不寻常的星球就是宇宙多样化的更好证据，钻石星球的说法也变得更加的靠谱。

—Christopher Intagliata

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