PSR J1719-1438 is a

millisecond pulsar A millisecond pulsar (MSP) is a pulsar with a rotational period less than about 10 milliseconds. Millisecond pulsars have been detected in radio, X-ray, and gamma ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The leading theory for the origin of ...

with a spin period of 5.8 ms located about 4,000 ly from Earth in the direction of

Serpens Serpens ( grc, , , the Serpent) is a constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it remains one of the 88 modern constellations designated by the International ...

Cauda, one minute from the border with Ophiuchus. Millisecond pulsars are generally thought to begin as normal pulsars and then spin up by accreting matter from a

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...

companion. PSRJ1719-1438Location

Diamond planet

PSR J1719-1438 was discovered in 2011 by the High Time Resolution Survey, a

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming f ...

search for astronomical objects that rapidly vary in radio brightness, such as pulsars. Timing measurements using the

Parkes Telescope Parkes Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It hosts Murriyang, the 64 m CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope also known as "The Dish", along with two smaller radio telescopes. T ...

and

Lovell Telescope The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire in the north-west of England. When construction was finished in 1957, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76 ...

showed that it has a low-mass companion:

PSR J1719-1438 b PSR may refer to: Organizations * Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, US * Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research * Physicians for Social Responsibility, US ;Political parties: * Revolutionary Socialist Party (Portugal) ( ...

. The companion has a mass similar to that of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

, but 40% of the diameter. It orbits the pulsar with a period of 2 hours 10 minutes and 37 seconds, at a distance of around 600,000 km (0.89

solar radii Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: :1\,R_ = 6.957\tim ...

). The companion is likely the remnant of a star whose outer layers were siphoned off by the more massive pulsar. Calculations show the companion has a minimum density of 23 grams per cubic centimeter and is probably an ultra-low-mass carbon–oxygen

white dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

. Because the companion to PSR J1719-1438 is planet-sized, made primarily of carbon (with an unknown amount of oxygen), and very dense, it may be similar to a large diamond. In the science press, the object has been called the "Diamond Planet".

A lump of QCD matter

It has been suggested in 2012 that PSR J1719-1438 b may not be the remnant of a white dwarf, but a lump of

quark matter Quark matter or QCD matter (quantum chromodynamics, quantum chromodynamic) refers to any of a number of hypothetical phase (matter), phases of matter whose degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry), degrees of freedom include quarks and gluons, of ...

with a size of just 1 kilometer and the mass of Jupiter, that would have been born in the collision and merger of two previous

quark star A quark star is a hypothetical type of compact, exotic star, where extremely high core temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form quark matter, a continuous state of matter consisting of free quarks. Background Some massive ...

s, part of the ejected matter ending orbiting the merger remnant we see as the pulsar PSR J1719-1438.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:PSR J1719-1438 ? Millisecond pulsars Planetary systems with one confirmed planet Serpens (constellation)

Diamond planet

A lump of QCD matter

See also

References