A so-called "diamond planet" has been discovered by an international research team, orbiting a pulsar about 4,000 light-years away.

A so-called "diamond planet" has been discovered by an international research team, orbiting a pulsar about 4,000 light-years away.

The small planet, orbiting the pulsar PSR J1719-1438, is believed to be denser than platinum, yet made up entirely of oxygen and carbon. The forces upon the planet are so extreme, scientists believe, that the planet must be largely crystalline - meaning that it's likely that it's a form of diamond as well.

If it were a gas giant, the diameter of the planet might put it within range of the point at which the gravitational forces being placed upon it would rip it apart, astronomy journals reported.

"It's highly speculative, but if you shine a light on it, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't sparkle like a diamond," says Travis Metcalfe of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, talking to New Scientist.

An international research team made the discovery with scientists from Australia, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, according to Astronomy Magazine.

Pulsars are tiny stars the periodically give off a burst of radio waves, which scientists don't fully understand. They are formed when the core of a massive star is compressed during a supernova, which collapses into a neutron star, which then gives off radiation during a fixed period.

"The ultimate fate of the binary is determined by the mass and orbital period of the donor star at the time of mass transfer. The rarity of millisecond pulsars with planet-mass companions means that producing such exotic planets is the exception rather than the rule, and requires special circumstances," said Benjamin Stappers from the University of Manchester, to Astronomy.

According to the study, the astronomers concluded that the radio waves were being modulated by a small planet about 370,000 miles away from the pulsar.