SCIENCE LAB SCENICS : WEIRD WORLDS [ 2 ]

'' A helium and carbon-dominated world is something that we've never seen before,'' Dr. Gao said.

Its carbon atmosphere might give it '' clouds made out of graphite,'' Dr. Zhang said, and diamond at its core.

Bands of storms could trace the world's lemon like exterior in the shape of a W, and it could look red because of dust and sootlike particles formed by the carbon.

OSR J2322-2650b's stange properties might mean it is not a planet but the remnant of a star that the pulsar has slowly eaten away. This might be the last moments of such a system, with PSR J2322 - 2650b on the cusp off being entirely consumed.

'' It would have lost 99.9 percent of its mass, and we just happened to catch it right at the very end,'' Dr. Gao said.

Alternatively, Dr. Zhang said it could also be ' an entirely new type of object that we don't have a name for.''

'' I hope we have a sibling to compare this object to,'' he said. '' If it's continuously losing mass, we had to be really lucky to see it in its last breath.''

The World Students Society thanks Jonathan O' Callaghan.