‘The Dish’ finds a ‘diamond planet’

An artist's visualisation of the pulsar and its orbiting planet. Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions

Astronomers using ‘The Dish’ – CSIRO’s radio telescope near Parkes, NSW – believe they’ve found a small planet made of diamond, orbiting an unusual star.

The discovery was made by an international research team, led by Professor Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and is reported today in the journal Science.