Diamond Planet

Basic Information

A Diamond Planet is basically what it sounds like - a planet made mostly of diamond. Such planets are probably very rare in our galaxy, and unlikely to support life.

Scientists believe they've found one such planet, in orbit around the pulsar PSR J1719-1438. The diamond planet is about half the size of Jupiter and roughly as dense as platinum. It is believed this planet was actually once a huge star, part of a binary system with a nearby neutron star. The outer 99% of the star (that eventually became a planet) was ripped off and sucked in by the nearby neutron star. What was left behind was mostly carbon and oxygen, much of which has settled into a crystalline (ie: diamond or diamond-like) format.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Space Daily

Game and Story Use

• There goes the market! It's probably not worth traveling light years and braving the region near a pulsar for just regular diamond, since once you brought back a few square miles of diamond, the supply would outpace the demand.
  • Unless of course, the diamond-like carbon crystals on this planet were somehow unusual. Shiny phlebotinum nuggets would no doubt be worth the dangers of the interstellar terrain it lies adjacent to.
  • A tight-fisted corporate monopoly controls access to the diamond planet, and carefully controls how much can be mined or exported.
• The diamond planet comes apart during some cataclysm (perhaps the nearby pulsar blasts it apart) and scatters to the other planets in the region, falling as glistening shards from the sky.
  • After the initial destruction, what do the survivors build with thousands of tons of space diamond?
• Some sort of heat-resistant life might have been born in the conditions that turned all that carbon into diamond. Perhaps crystalline critters with brilliant armor and natural laser lenses?
• A diamond planet probably has awesome terrain. Huge spiky mountains, giant geode caverns, translucent plateaus, and a sunset that's literally blinding. Bring a few extra pairs of boots, because pounding the ground here will be hell on your shoes.