![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/An-illustraion-of-the-lemon-world-credit-NASA-ESA-CSA-Ralf-Crawford-STScI-1024x576.jpg\")
An illustraion of the lemon world \u2013 credit, NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)<\/p>\n An illustraion of the lemon world \u2013 credit, NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)<\/p>\n
An exoplanet located 2,000 light years from Earth is so unusual it\u2019s given astronomers the idea that it could be a totally new type of object.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because it\u2019s shaped like a lemon, with a small tip just like the fruit has, and a free-floating carbon atmosphere where rain might turn to diamonds in the planet\u2019s extreme temperature.<\/p>\n
The authors of the astrophysical analysis on the object have already spoken to a variety of science media outlets and the general consensus is this: there\u2019s no object known that has similar conditions or characteristics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m open to the possibility that this is an entirely new type of object,\u201d Michael Zhang, one of the authors, told Scientific American, and said to the New Scientist, \u201cwe don\u2019t know of any other planetary atmosphere that looks anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exoplanet, or whatever it is, is called PSR J2322-2650b, and it orbits a pulsar at a distance of about 1 million miles, which is 100-times closer than the Earth is to the Sun. As dense as the Sun but as small as a city, a pulsar, which is the rapidly-spinning heart of an already collapsed star, has a strong gravitational field, and it\u2019s believed to be the answer to the question of why PSR is lemon-shaped.<\/p>\n
The belief is the intense gravity has literally elongated the sphere into a lemon shape. If you imagine the tip of a lemon, there is a point on the object where material is being drawn away and into the pulsar due to the intense gravity.<\/p>\n
Of the 6,000 known exoplanets, this lemon planet is the only one reminiscent of a gas giant (with mass, radius, and temperature similar to Jupiter) that\u2019s also orbiting a pulsar. Only a handful of pulsars are known to have planets, but none so close to it as this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember after we got the data down, our collective reaction was \u2018what the heck is this?\u2019 It\u2019s extremely different from what we expected,\u201d said<\/a> study co-author Peter Gao of the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington.<\/p>\n ALSO CHECK OUT: <\/strong>\u2018Starquakes\u2019 Inside Universe\u2019s Densest Objects May Have Seeded Earth with Large Amounts of Gold<\/a><\/p>\n The anomalies don\u2019t stop with the shape, however. This Jupiter-mass object appears to have an exotic helium-and-carbon-dominated atmosphere unlike any ever seen before. Soot clouds likely float through the air, and deep within the planet, these carbon clouds can condense and form diamonds.<\/p>\n MORE INTERSTELLAR BIZARRITIES: <\/strong>The Wild Quadruple Star System Contains Not One, but Two of the Most Elusive Objects in the Galaxy<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn order to have molecular carbon in the atmosphere, you have to get rid of pretty much everything else\u2014all of the oxygen, all of the nitrogen\u2014and we just don\u2019t know how to do that,\u201d Zhang told New Scientist.<\/p>\n