PAOC alum detects first carbon-rich exoplanet

A team led by former postdoctoral researcher Nikku Madhushudhan, recently measured the first-ever planetary atmosphere to be substantially enriched in carbon. In a paper published Wednesday in Nature, such an 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. Madhushuhan is a former postdoc with Sara Seager. He is now a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton.

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