A giant gas planet named WASP-12b is 4,200 Farenheit, more than 1,000 light years from Earth and is slowly being eaten its parent star.  The only great thing about it? It's reportedly covered in mountains made of diamonds!

The planet is said to be the first "carbon-rich" world ever observed. The planet contains an unusual of carbon. 

The diamond discovery was made using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and previously published observations from the ground.  This research supports the theory that carbon-heavy planets with rocks could exist around other stars. These planets would very different from Earth.

"A carbon-dominated terrestrial world could have lots of pure carbon rocks, like diamond or graphite, as well as carbon compounds like tar," said the University of Central Florida's Joseph Harrington,who is the principal investigator of the research.

"The planet reveals the astounding diversity of world out there, adds Nikku Madhusudhan, lead author of a report in the journal Nature, "Carbon-rich planets would be exotic in every way…"

According to The Daily Mail, WASP-12b is 1.4 times as massive as Jupiter and roughly 1,200 light years away from Earth. It orbits around its star in a little over a day. One side always faces the star.  It is very close to its star. The star is 2,600 Kelvin (4,200 degrees Farenheit, what reports say is hot enough to melt steel.)

WASP-12b is the first planet to have its carbon-to-oxygen ratio measured at greater than one.  Unlike Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which have a ratio less than one, this planet has extra carbon.  Only the sun has a carbon-to-oxygen ratio of about one to two, which means it has about half as much carbon as it has oxygen.

Carbon is a common component of planetary systems and a key ingredient of life on Earth. A

None of the planets in our solar system is known to have more carbon than oxygen, or a ratio of one or greater. However, this ratio is unknown for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Marc Kuchner, a NASA astronomer put it best: "When the relative amount of carbon gets that high, it's as though you flip a switch, and everything changes. If something like this had happened on Earth, your expensive engagement ring would be made of glass, which would be rare, and the mountains would all be made of diamonds."

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