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  • Diamond star thrills astronomers

    Diamond star thrills astronomers

    By Dr David Whitehouse
    BBC News Online science editor



    A diamond that is almost forever
    Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.
    The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 1,500 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

    It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

    Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy," after the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

    Lucy in the sky

    "You would need a jeweller's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!" says astronomer Travis Metcalfe of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

    The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a measly 3,100-carat gem.

    The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

    For more than four decades, astronomers have thought that the interiors of white dwarfs crystallised, but obtaining direct evidence became possible only recently.

    The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

    "By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

    We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

    Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of our Solar System.

    "Our Sun will become a diamond that truly is forever," says Metcalfe.


    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm


    Remember when i said mining in space wasn't worth it? I take it back.

  • #2
    I'll race you. 50 light years ain't far :)
    at

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    • #3
      That's fantastic, I love this stuff. Who knows what will yet be found right here around Sol.
      No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
      I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
      even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
      He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

      Comment


      • #4
        They say we are made of the dust of early super nova stars. I looks like we'll all end up being diamonds in the end though.

        Comment


        • #5
          I hope we become masters of the Universe with the ability to create a whole new galaxys, warp time, and travel from one point to another with a flick of the fingers.

          :-D

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Praxus
            I hope we become masters of the Universe with the ability to create a whole new galaxys, warp time, and travel from one point to another with a flick of the fingers.

            :-D
            Given enough time and space, all answers will come. :)
            No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
            I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
            even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
            He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

            Comment


            • #7
              Well we all have greatness in us. No seriously. Pick any famous figure from history, and chances are there are few million atoms of he or she in you.

              The mind boggles.
              at

              Comment


              • #8
                I wonder, how many atoms are in the average human body?
                No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                Comment


                • #9
                  7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 for a 70Kg human.

                  Give or take a couple.
                  at

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    That's too many for me to grasp, how about in a grain of salt? :)
                    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Ah well. how big a grain of salt?

                      But apparently, 12,000,000,000,000,000,000

                      Everything is mostly free space. We humans are of course mostly free space, but it turns out, what is our substance is mostly oxygen.
                      at

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                      • #12
                        Hehe ;) I learned about the free space thing on Star Trek, when I was just wee. :)
                        No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                        I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                        even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                        He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Bill Bryson came up with an excellent metaphor for the free spaciness of matter in his "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

                          If you imagine an atom to be the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be the size of a fly. That's a lot of free space!
                          at

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                          • #14
                            Ooooh better not let my brother or father see that diamond. They might be crazy enough to attempt to go there and attempt to *appraise* it.

                            Geez, I wonder how the hell can you appraise that sort of size of that monstrosity?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Trooth
                              Bill Bryson came up with an excellent metaphor for the free spaciness of matter in his "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

                              If you imagine an atom to be the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be the size of a fly. That's a lot of free space!
                              Maybe excellent for Europeans. Most Americans don't see a cathedral on a daily basis. :lol
                              "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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