New ‘diamond’ planet discovered
An international research team (UK, Australia, Germany, USA, Italy) have detected a dense carbon planet in the constellation Serpens (part of the Milky Way). Since it’s at least as dense as platinum, scientists have calculated that it must be crystalline. See Ben Hirschler’s Reuters article for more on this topic.
The next evil, mad, science fiction villain only needs to travel a mere 4000 light years in his quest for world domination in the form of wealth. There’s a lot of diamond in a planet the size of city, but perhaps he should wait until the ingredients of pulsar PSR J1719-143 are confirmed, or until a closer one is found.