Scientists Find Bizarre, Lemon-Shaped World Orbiting City-Size Star
Astronomers have discovered a lemon-shaped planet orbiting a small star, but that’s not the only strange thing.
Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a Jupiter-sized planet, named PSR J2322-2650b, which is the first to have an atmosphere composed of helium and molecular carbon.
“Soot clouds are likely floating in the air, and deep within the planet, these carbon clouds may condense and form diamonds,” NASA said in a statement.
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“The planet is orbiting a star that is completely bizarre — (the star has) the mass of the Sun, but the size of a city,” said Michael Zhang of the University of Chicago, principal investigator of the study.
Researchers say the planet is a hundred times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun, and it’s intense gravitational forces that pull it toward its bizarre lemon-shaped shape.
Music fans may know that indie band The National wrote a song about life in Lemonworld in 2011. Do we need to scour The National’s catalog for further evidence of interstellar learning? My number one contender is The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness. Is this proof of Planet X? I say, yes.
