Astronomers detect first carbon-rich exoplanet

Artist concept of the extremely hot exoplanet WASP-12b and the host star. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC) - To receive a high-resolution image, please e-mail whitney.b.clavin [a] jpl.nasa (p) gov CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A team led by a former postdoctoral researcher in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, recently measured the first-ever planetary atmosphere that is substantially enriched in carbon. The researchers found that the carbon-to-oxygen ratio of WASP-12b, an exoplanet about 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter and located about 1,200 light years away, is greater than one. As they report in a paper published on Dec. 8 in the journal Nature , this carbon-rich atmosphere supports the possibility that rocky exoplanets could be composed of pure carbon rocks like diamond or graphite rather than the silica-based rock found in Earth.