Say you need a diamond. You could go down to the jeweler, or you could put some carbon deep underground and let it sit for a couple billion years. Or you could ___1___ a starship and cruise 4,000 light years over to a dead star called pulsar J1719-1438.

The pulsar is ___2___ on its own—it's a super-dense remnant of a star spinning at about 10,000 rpm. But far more curious is the world orbiting it, which might be called a planet if it weren't so strange.

It's about as massive as Jupiter, but much more compact. It may be the ___3___ of a carbon-rich white dwarf star. But it's been mostly cannibalized by its pulsar companion, and is now just a shadow of its former self.

The object’s incredible density makes it ___4___ great internal pressure. And that pressure, acting on the carbon-rich makeup of the white dwarf, may have crystallized much of it to the particular form of carbon we call diamond. That's according to new research in the journal Science. [Citation to come.]

The next step for astronomers is to find out if the diamond planet has rings.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
hop in exotic remains subject to
如果你想要钻石，要么去珠宝店买一颗，要么在底下埋点碳再等个几十亿年，现在你还可以搭上星际飞船，直奔4,000光年之外的死亡星球——脉冲星J1719-1438。 这颗脉冲星本身就是外来天体——它是转速达10，000r/m的恒星的超高密度残余物。它周围围绕的天体更奇特，都快可以称之为行星了。 这颗星球体积和木星差不多，但密度更高，很可能是富含碳的白矮星的残余物。不过在其脉冲星的“摧残”之下，已经所剩无几了。 它惊人的密度使其受制于强大的内压，这个压力作用于白矮星含碳量丰富的组成成分上，使其形成结晶，从而形成了我们所说的钻石。这是《科学》杂志上刊登的一项新的研究发现。 接下来，天文学家就要找找钻石星有么有戒指了。