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The Galaxy's Largest Diamond
unassimilatible writes "The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reports 'to impress your favorite lady this Valentine's Day, get her the galaxy's largest diamond.' A newly discovered cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros. A cheesy, unrealistic simulation is also available. AP has a story as well."
DeBeers has announced their official entry into the X-prize competition...
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
Sadly DeBeers has already posted one poor volunteer from South Africa to sit on it until it gets close enough to rope in.
mitch
Is the high resolution image for the women?
Great, now I have to haul my ass all the way to where?
This getting married thing is getting more and more complicated each year.
--Thei Antispamist A useless endevor that will cer
Us guys will be in seriously deep shit with our signifigant others if someone gives that to his signifigant other.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
with something like "I heard Shelly's daughter has one with 10 billion trillion trillion TRILLION carats."
"You dont love me...."
*sigh*
on closer inspection it is revealed to be cubic zirconium which drastically reduces it value at the local pawn shop.
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
NASA's moon/mars missions have been scrapped. Details vauge. In an unrelated story, DeBeers' announced they will be starting a space program with primary research into developing inter-space missiles.
Error: Id10t detected
All it takes is blue spandex, a cape, and a wry grin given to an amazed coal worker.
It wouldn't matter if someone went up and brought the diamond back. As soon as you send it to the jewelers to be mapped and evaluated, they'll just swap it out for another, lesser quality, diamond without you even knowing.
I say leave it in place. We could shave off the first 30 miles of top layer and shine a giant laser at it for the largest intergalactic network ever known to man. Since it would take light 50 years to travel to the planet, Half-Life 2 should be just about ready to play by then.I'm sorry, Dave, but I can't allow you to do that. It would jepordize the mission.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
I hear that Tau Ceti is bragging that they bought a larger one.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
So, don't overpay for it, no matter what the salesman says about size mattering...
TSG
Carbon + Heat + Pressure = Diamond
So maybe its a chunk of a planet that got creamed by a really big rock.
Or, more likely, its a rejected engagement ring on some faraway planet.
Female Alien: Only 10 billion trillion trillion carats?! You OBVIOUSLY don't love me that much if thats all you can afford! Throw it into space, I don't want it!! *stomps off*
- The universe's largest collection of AOL CDs, approximately a terragoogle of them circling Saturn in the form of one of its rings. Results of failed marketing campaign circa 2501ad.
- A twenty-billion tonne meteor shaped exactly like the Hand of God, heading straight for Ur^h^h the planet Earth.
- Life on Mars, complete with funky trance tunes and dayglo noserings.
- A bong the size of NYC, containing twenty billion tonnes of a material that under examination appears to be chemically identical to Tunisian purple haze. Said bong is orbiting the Sun quite close to Mars and already the petition to send a manned mission to Mars has collected five hundred and thirty million signatures. Most of them say, "send me, send me!" Others just say, "Dude, that's too much!"
- A radio beacon embedded in the heart of a small black rock circling one of Pluto's moon. After the rock is detected and retrieved in 2032 at incredible expense, and cracked open following ten years of drilling, it is found to contain a copy of MAD Magazine from circa 1972 and a small piece of paper with the words "regular delivery to this address, please" on it.
- The discovery, in a deep crater on Mars, of an underground passage leading to a huge room filled with silent, brooding machines. After long study and careful analysis of the patterns and markings, we activate one of the machines. Immediately the whole room comes to life and a small black hole appears in its center. The Martian surface starts to slide into the black hole, then the entire planet, and finally the whole Solar System. A team of two plutonaughts watch the scene from the far boundaries of the Plutonian orbit, and as the last specks are absorbed into the now huge and pulsating black hole, they read, in huge flashing letters, the text "ZIPPING COMPLETE. NOW REFORMATTING MEDIA... 1% COMPLETE, PLEASE WAIT."
Ceci n'est pas une signature
This puts another spin on the phrase "reaching the stars for HER" right?
"Wireless : LAN
Heh. I don't even worry... 50 light years a way is a big enough barrier to me. Might as well start buying coal.
Everytime you look at porn a devil gets their horns.
Yes but can fedex or UPS deliver it for Valentines day, any geek could get laid with one of these.
It's a conflict diamond - from a war a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
I bet this is going to piss off DeBeers to no end, but...
I for one, welcome our new diamond overlords.
Learn something new.
..Women worldwide ambigous...
For my girlfriend to get her diamond gift from me, she had to do the same.
Blow...very hard rock...
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
... and now to make [the 14th] it complete, where is the /. article about the largest chocolate in the galaxy ?!
-- Ben --
Sounds like this would have an irresistable attraction on Scrooge McDuck.
At least the journalist on this piece didn't tell us how much the star weighed using the IEEE international standard of Volkswagen Beetles.
Couldn't this story have waited one more day until after Valentine's? To raise expectations last minute like that is just...well...brutal.
sev
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
That's why it's so complicated. You think having more than 1 girlfriend is difficult to swing? - better not try the "another wife every year" thing.
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
Damn that must of been a big book then.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
My husband only got me a 120 gig external hard drive for Valentine's Day! What a gyp!
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
"A cheesy, unrealistic simulation is also available."
As plenipotentiary for the planet Zirconia, I must object in the strongest terms possible to your casting aspersions on my fair planet.
Hey, has anybody thought about selling the thing on ebay? Auction starting at $1, self-collectors only ;-)
Heavy Metal indeed.
It's rumored that GWAR originally came from the core of Jupiter before the Master sent them, the Scumdogs of the Universe, to an iceberg in Antactica.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
Hundreds of millions of years ago, who do think was alive on this planet to witness the nova explosion?
Strom Thurman?
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Can someone please tell me how a huge chunk of carbon (even one that big) can be detected from 50 light-years away?
Jealousy. If there's a bigger diamond out there, someone's girlfriend/wife is sure to find out/know about it. "Hrmph. Well, I guess it's nice, but I hear Centaraus has a 10 billion trillion trillion carat diamond!"
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
If I had the time, I'd figure out how deep it would be if it were evenly spread over the Earth's surface.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Kobe Bryant's wife just got really pissed at him again.
A billiard.... There are 15 balls in billiards and 15 zeroes in a billiard.. A coincidence?
Eat at Joe's.