Why 55 Cancri e Got Its Diamond Label
55 Cancri e earned its jeweled nickname from an inference, not a sighting: models suggested that a super-Earth orbiting a carbon-rich star could contain far more carbon than Earth, and that immense pressure beneath its surface might compress part of that carbon into diamond. That distinction matters.The label was always too tidy. Early estimates of the host star's carbon-to-oxygen ratio appeared t...More
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