Officially named PSR J2322-2650b, this object has an exotic helium-and-carbon-dominated atmosphere unlike any ever seen before. It has a mass about the same as Jupiter, but soot clouds float through the air—and deep within the planet, these carbon clouds can condense and form diamonds. It orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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It always bogles my brain that they can tell all these things based on light shifts and what not. So this lemon shape, is the heavy star nearby pulling it apart or something to elongate it like that?
That's my understanding based on the article, it orbits a star the weight of ours but the size of a basketball or something insane like that
Neutron stars have a diameter of approximately 20 km. Still tiny in cosmic terms.
Lemon-shaped? I wasn’t aware that was an option.
In my defense I'm waiting for the coffee to kick in... But I thought the image belonged to this post and I had a giggle.
So, did the star blow off a layer of carbon on a previous do-over?
Real story would be if the planet was Onion shape and athmosphere was Not The Onion.