10 Craziest Planets In The Universe

55 Cancri e is an exoplanet twice the size of Earth, but 8.63 times more massive. It can be found orbiting the star 55 Cancri, 41 light years away in the Cancer constellation.

The planet was first discovered in August 2004, but it was not until 2012 that scientists made a startling discovery about its composition. It was mostly made of pure carbon.

"So what?" You might ask. Carbon is very common. What is not common, however, is carbon under the conditions of this planet. Due to the proximity of the planet to its host star, temperatures can exceed over 1,700 Celsius - 3100 Fahrenheit. Alongside the enormous gravitational pressures, this made astronomers believe that the planet itself could be composed almost entirely of diamond.

However, mining this diamond would be almost impossible. The temperatures and radiation from the nearby star would completely destroy anything that made it to the surface, not to mention the fact that there is constant volcanic activity and that the atmosphere contains lethal amounts of hydrogen cyanide.