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."

Comments

In other news...

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

DeBeers has announced their official entry into the X-prize competition...

Re:In other news...

[hplasm]

DeBeers announced they were retaining SCO's lawyers, claiming "...it's ours, I tell you!!!! OURS!!"

Re:In other news...

[Acts of Attrition]

Wouldn't it be amazing if some guy could attach this diamond to a ring of Saturn? I betcha his wife would owe him a lifetime of hourly blow jobs.

closer

[kyshtock]

Wasn't there a theory that the core of Jupiter was diamond?

Re:closer

[klasikahl]

Would that not imply that Jupiter is a star-turned-white-dwarf? I'm pretty sure it would. In which case, it is highly unlikely that Jupiter once was a star.

Re:closer

[Nihilist_CE]

Would that not imply that Jupiter is a star-turned-white-dwarf? No, just that Jupiter has a high carbon content (highly likely) and that the core is under intense pressure (certain). Arthur C. Clarke endorsed the idea in 2010: Odyssey Two. He also invented the radio satellite in 1945. The guy knows his stuff.

Re:closer

[Genda]

Uh no... no diamond at the core of Jupiter... there is still some question about rocky, heavy metal, or metalic hydrogen at the core...

In any of those cases, the state of matter at jupiter's core would be pretty exotic stuff, even a diamond at those temperatures and pressures would flow like water...

And no, jupiter was never large enough to have sustained fusion, though it does emit a whole lotta heat and readio waves.

Genda Bendte

Re:closer

[be-fan]

That's right. Jupiter was never a star. Its its hottest, its core temperature never got above about 1/3 what was necessary for fusion to occur.

Re:closer

[nerdguy569]

Wasn't there a theory that the core of Jupiter was diamond?

no, the theory was it was highly compacted, solid Hydrogen, you should check your sources, there is virtually no carbon in jupiter.

Re:closer

[DroopyStonx]

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.

Re:closer

[MinutiaeMan]

Actually, I believe Clarke endorsed the idea in 2061: Odyssey Three. ;-)

Re:closer

[Dr. Evil]

The "invention" of geosychronous satelite networks in 1945 is dubious... It's an obvious solution for a problem which nobody was even thinking about at the time.

I will admit that it is an accomplishment for a sci-fi writer, but no more an "invention" than devising a method to manage air traffic for flying cars.... if we get there, somebody will come up with an idea... making cars fly is by far the greater accomplishment... just like launching/building geosynchonous satelites.

Re:closer

[squiggleslash]

Supposedly it's 0.7% methane. While this means that a relatively low proportion of the planet is carbon, Jupiter's sheer enormity means that there's a hell of a lot of carbon there. More than you could fit under your bed at any rate.

Re:closer

[squiggleslash]

Oops, 0.07% I meant. Which is still, given the size of Jupiter, a massive amount, and more than you can fit under your bed. Well, I don't know how large your bed is, I mean, you might sleep on the moon for all I know, but it's more than'll fit under mine anyway.

If I had the time, I'd figure out how deep it would be if it were evenly spread over the Earth's surface.

Re:closer

[nerdguy569]

if you want to find a methane planet, go to saturn, neptune, or uranus, which have extremely high percentages of methane.

Re:closer

[bpiltz]

Yes, yes, but have they found the transparent aluminum, yet?!! I am 20 years late on my delivery of these whales and.... Oh, nevermind, you wouldn't believe it anyways.

Re:closer

[jtev]

For purposes of the US pattent office it does count as prior art, Just like Heinlein having water beds in Stranger in a Strange Land.

DeBeers

[stibles]

Sadly DeBeers has already posted one poor volunteer from South Africa to sit on it until it gets close enough to rope in.

Re:DeBeers

[AltGrendel]

They actually outsourced this to India.

Oh my God...

[meeotch]

...it's full of Retsyn!

mitch

thank god for that high res pic

[werdnapk]

Is the high resolution image for the women?

Just in time for Valentine's Day

[antispamist]

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.

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[Lane.exe]

You get married each year? Tough break, bro.

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[_Potter_PLNU_]

I must say, one of the only times I'm glad I don't have a women in my life...Don't have to deal with Valentine's Day I just have to deal with Single's Awareness Day. Reminds me of that Jimmy Stewart film where he tells the girl he'll lasso the moon and bring it down for her. Now you guys with ladies are gonna have to get that lasso out and rope this sucker and bring it down ;).

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[caino59]

I'm very glad I have the girl I do involved in my life - maybe it's just that way when two people love each other - it's just such a good feeling that once you have it, you don't want to be without it.

to live without love is to barely live at all...

then again, I'm a romantic through and through.

Love my baby :o)

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[Starcub]

Great, now I have to haul my ass all the way to where?

Forget it. It already belongs to God's wife; she just picked Valentine's Day to show it off.

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[corbettw]

Love my baby

What the hell?!? That's my wife!

j/k, I'm not married.

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[operagost]

Jim Carrey's character in "Bruce Almighty" actually did that. I'd forgotten about the Jimmy Stewart reference until now - you just gave me a new chuckle from a movie I saw months ago!

Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day

[Tackhead]

> I'm very glad I have the girl I do involved in my life - maybe it's just that way when two people love each other - it's just such a good feeling that once you have it, you don't want to be without it.

I'm very glad I have heroin in my life - maybe it's just that way when you find something you love - it's just such a good feeling that once you have it, you don't want to be without it.

Got a problem with the heroin analogy? Fine. s/heroin/oxytocin/g.

Largest diamond?

[Anonymous Coward]

> 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...

Then again, maybe Sir Arthur's conjecture is right and there's a much larger diamond in our own "backyard". Now if only the Firstborn would do their thing and fire up Lucifer, diamond would be as cheap as sand...

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2270.html

Re:Largest diamond?

[PakProtector]

I'm sorry, Dave, but I can't allow you to do that. It would jepordize the mission.

Re:Largest diamond?

[JaredOfEuropa]

..diamond would be as cheap as sand... Diamonds already are worth about as much as sand, except that de Beers has pretty much all of them, and they charge what they like...

Re:Largest diamond?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Nope, I'm from the Netherlands :)

I took the line from 'Futurama'... it is the motto of the Neutral Planet.

ppfffttt

[phlegmofdiscontent]

When the hell are news outlets going to hire writers that at least understand science somewhat and won't dumb it down so far that it becomes just another fluff story next to the one about the cute puppies? Granted, it's cool that scientists can confirm a hunk of crystallized carbon that large, but give me a friggin break....

Re:ppfffttt

[azcoffeehabit]

yeah seriously, there has to be more to say about this discovery then "you couldnt wear it as a ring" wtf is that about. You would think a group with the name The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics would have a bit more of a profound view on the crystalization(sp?) of a star, than "bill gates couldn't afford it". Oh well, lets hope for a more scientific update on this.

Re:ppfffttt

[alex_ant]

Get a photocopy of Astrophysical Journal Letters from your local library (via interlibrary loan if they don't carry it) and don't be such a snob.

Re:ppfffttt

[MillionthMonkey]

Get a photocopy of Astrophysical Journal Letters from your local library (via interlibrary loan if they don't carry it) and don't be such a snob.

A "snob"? A little skepticism is warranted here.

White dwarfs have densities in the ballpark of one million grams per cc. Have we ever compressed any matter on earth at all to a density of 1 million grams per cc? Do you seriously think that carbon, which as diamond has an invariant density of 3.51 g/cc, would still exist in something resembling its familiar form at a density of 1 million g/cc? As a covalently bonded sp3 tetrahedral diamond lattice?

The internuclear spacing of carbon nuclei in a carbon dwarf is about 1% of what it is in an ordinary diamond. It may be made of carbon, but this is not diamond. I doubt it's even diamondlike. It's something else.

Re:ppfffttt

[Avishalom]

its worst than just a dumbed down version.
its basically a pun-infested piece stating that 10^34 is bigger than 500.

a lot bigger.
very very much so.
indeed.

Re:ppfffttt

[Zzootnik]

Of course there is...

You can say "I could use it Like a giant magnifying glass with our Sun and burn away planets like Ants on the sidewalk! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...."</EVIL LAUGH>

I supose that's more "evil" than "Scientific" though...

Re:ppfffttt

[Jerf]

Have we ever compressed any matter on earth at all to a density of 1 million grams per cc?

Probably. When a supercolliders collide two gold nuclei, the density gets pretty damned high, but unfortunately I can't seem to Google any solid numbers up. I'd strongly suspect that the density gets into that range.

Of course your point stands, in that we have never taken macroscopic quantities of matter up to that density, and what matter we have taken to that density doesn't stay there long at all.

Just an informational posting; I agree with the parent in general.

(Another interesting note; dividing the volume by mass gives average density. The density will be much less at the surface and much greater in the middle (IIRC it's typically an exponential curve). So the maximum density is even greater then the BOTE calculation would indicate.)

Re:ppfffttt

[Urkki]

• Another interesting note; dividing the volume by mass gives average density. The density will be much less at the surface and much greater in the middle (IIRC it's typically an exponential curve). So the maximum density is even greater then the BOTE calculation would indicate.

Or then the density could be just about the same at the surface of the core and at the middle of the core. Just like water is about as dense at the surface as it is at the depth of 11km. Because I think the ordinary matter is as compressed in a white star as it ever can be. For it to compress any further, it needs to change form, electrons melding into protons, and the whole thing becoming a neutron star.

Re:ppfffttt

[MillionthMonkey]

Probably. When a supercolliders collide two gold nuclei, the density gets pretty damned high, but unfortunately I can't seem to Google any solid numbers up. I'd strongly suspect that the density gets into that range.

Oh in those collisions the density is much much higher- maybe a factor of a thousand times higher, approaching neutron star density. But in fact ALL nuclei have comparable density and as you point out we have no macroscopic quantity of this stuff.

White dwarfs are supported by degenerate electron pressure. So many electrons are crammed into such a small space that the entire star has become something like one giant atom with lots of nuclei in it. All low energy electron quantum states are occupied by electrons. Except at the very highest energy levels near the Fermi energy, which are adjacent to unoccupied levels immediately above, giving the electrons in those states a little freedom of movement.

A white dwarf has no internal energy source- it spends the rest of its life cooling down into a cinder. Since the star is hot (surface temps are commonly 100000 K) there is some spillover into higher energy levels. But as the star cools down, they gradually settle down and fill all available levels below the Fermi energy.

The nuclei, OTOH, still have plenty of room. They are still bouncing around and having collisions in the star like a classical gas because they still have so many unoccupied quantum states to explore. There probably isn't much difference between a carbon-dominated white dwarf and a helium-dominated one, since the behavior of both is mostly determined by what the electrons are doing. The article says that by studying pulsations of the star, they determined that the interior has "solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond". It leaves out some details. What is "solidifying"? The electrons or the embedded nuclei? It could mean a bunch of things. "Diamond" is not really one of them, though. This would be a different sort of diamond than you are used to.

When you hear an astrophysicist claiming that he has found a "girl's best friend" in space, always be skeptical. These physicists know little about what girls really want.

Re:ppfffttt

[Alcohol Fueled]

"It may be made of carbon, but this is not diamond. I doubt it's even diamondlike. It's something else."

You're right. Its really cubic zirconium. :P

Re:ppfffttt

[notyou2]

This may be a stupid question, but...

How long will it take to cool down far enough that it's no longer emitting enough radiation (of whatever sort) for us to even see it?

Is anyone proposing such a mechanism as an explanation of the dark matter issue?

Re:ppfffttt

[MillionthMonkey]

How long will it take to cool down far enough that it's no longer emitting enough radiation (of whatever sort) for us to even see it?

About 100 billion years, typically 10-20X as long as the star's pre-dwarf lifetime. The surface temperature is 20X the sun's, so in theory they're 160000 times as radiant per square centimeter than the sun is. But they're about as big as the earth, so an incredible amount of thermal energy has to radiate through a relatively small surface area. In the standard APOD photo you can see what they look like- they have the color of hot blue giant stars but they're very dim for being so small.

Is anyone proposing such a mechanism as an explanation of the dark matter issue?

A white-dwarf-matter theory runs into trouble pretty fast. It predicts things that we don't see, like many more supernovas each year than observed. There are a whole bunch of dark matter theories that try to explain the weird gravitational stuff using ordinary baryonic matter like rocks, dwarfs, or comets. In general they are only seriously brought up when someone is dismissing them.

Quite the sparkle?

[loyalsonofrutgers]

My understanding is that the vast majority of a diamond's "sparkle" is the result of careful cutting and controlling where the light enters the diamond. Slicing through an otherwise uncut diamond would not be too impressive, I'd imagine. Especially considering the lack of a strong light source.

Maybe a more worthwhile story would be on the fact that the entire diamond industry is created by incredibly strict control of the supply, which is kept artificially low to dramatically inflate price. If people knew, and accepted, the truth this wouldn't be considered that much more special than the fact that some other planets are just big, big versions of rocks. Gasp!

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[ClubStew]

Actually, the sad thing is that most people seem to already know this but no one does / can do (?) anything to stop them. DeBeers, after all, pretty much controls the majority of diamonds on this planet.

To give DeBeers the slap in the face they need, maybe we should harvest this white dwarf. Heck, just tell Liz Taylor about this and she'll get that "sparkly" diamond almost half as big as she is in no time!

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[Animats]

Yeah, and Gemesys, the new synthetic diamond gem manufacturer, caved in to deBeers and are now engraving "Gemesis created" and a serial number on each stone.

But in time, the bottom will fall out. In 1943, Linde Chemical created the first synthetic sapphire. Now, you can buy 200mm sapphire bar stock. Big 16mm gem-quality sapphires are available for about $10. The same thing happened to rubies and emeralds.

They're just rocks, people.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[CheshireCat]

I didn't know anybody was synthesizing gem-quality diamonds. Neat.

I wonder though... some geeks who think that man-made diamonds are just plain neat, and probably many politically aware people who dislike deBeers would consider the engraving to be a selling point.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[pipingguy]

Maybe a more worthwhile story would be on the fact that the entire diamond industry is created by incredibly strict control of the supply, which is kept artificially low to dramatically inflate price

OMG!OMG! Canadian diamonds!

"The average salary for all workers employed in the diamond mining industry in the Northwest Territories from 1998 to 2001 was $61,639. The average for production employees, those involved in the mining operations, was slightly higher, at $64,336."

*Door slams on scarf trailing from parka*

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[kinnell]

Maybe a more worthwhile story would be on the fact that the entire diamond industry is created by incredibly strict control of the supply, which is kept artificially low to dramatically inflate price.

I'd love to see De Beers reaction if someone strapped a warp drive to this baby and flew it back to Earth.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[dragonbutt]

"The average for production employees, those involved in the mining operations, was slightly higher, at $64,336"

Well that would be $48,924.71 US dollars

I think I'll keep my day job

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[nomadic]

That's just Canadian funny money, not worth anything...

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[juhaz]

And gold is just a shiny metal.

Sure it is, it's rare, though, and quite unlike gemstones, can not be synthesized (transmuted, yes, but that costs way more than gold itself).

And cash is just ink and paper.

Yes, it is. In that respect, you're right, cash is just like diamonds - it's only valuable because it's controlled by someone - but unlike diamonds, cash is not controlled by illegal cartel. Some people won't like governments or other administrative organizations, but I don't think anyone thinks money would be better of in hands of de Beers than central banks of nations.

These things have value because people believe they have, but they also have value because they are at least somewhat rare, due to someone controlling the supply. If you put unlimited amount of cash to market, it leads inevitably to inflation, pieces of ink and paper no longer have any value because there are too many of them.

If you put enough diamonds on market, same thing happens, they lose any value they had, be it real or imaginary.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[(F)rank(B)roughton]

So true and so sad. A stinking rock and yet people kill for it. God must sit in the heavens and get a big laugh of of this one....

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[dandelion_wine]

but they also have value because they are at least somewhat rare

No, they're not valuable because they're rare.
An-almost extinct species of bear might shit in the woods and its crap wouldn't sell as a commodity.
We give diamonds and gold value, we bestow it upon them, use them as currency, because of the inability (untill recently) to replicate.

Let's say we used twigs as currency. But only these hundred original twigs, mind you, in our little village. Well, you'll just go pick one up from under that tree over there, won't you? We need something that can't be faked, hence rarity and value become associated (aside from the human heuristic of "scarce resources should be valued more" as a psychological aside).

You're buying into the "valuable because they are" line of thinking. Diamonds and gold have uses, but their price (not their value) reflects rarity and good marketing rather than anything else (just like this limited-edition rookie card blah blah blah)...

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[stefanlasiewski]

Hmmm, it looks like the Median Family Income in Canada is
$72,524 (Canadian Dollars).

But it's probably pretty stable work, considering that the rich are still pretty darn rich and will keep buying diamonds.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[Cybrr]

This got them nervously distributing spectrometers and advertising that a diamond created last week isn't as much a symbol of eternity as a natural diamond.

Both last just about that long though, and the artificial one isn't likely to have a bloody history.

Re:Quite the sparkle?

[squiggleslash]

I'm guessing it would be "Oh my god, we're all going to die! There's a fucking DWARF STAR heading right for us! Even if it misses us Earth will be thrown out of orbit!"

Heheh :)

Woo.

[Renraku]

Us guys will be in seriously deep shit with our signifigant others if someone gives that to his signifigant other.

Re:Woo.

[Trillan]

Well, if you stop reading slashdot maybe your computer won't notice. :)

Re:Woo.

[rk]

But I've got a deal for you. For just 49.95 you can name that diamond after your significant other!

You wil receive an official seal and I will register my documents stating that the rock is named after your sweetie at the US Copyright office!

What's the surface gravity?

[Animats]

Is this a stellar mass squeezed down to planetary size, or what?

I'd still get nagged...

[Anonymous Coward]

with something like "I heard Shelly's daughter has one with 10 billion trillion trillion TRILLION carats."
"You dont love me...."

*sigh*

Re:I'd still get nagged...

[Flounder]

"I hear Shelly's daughter can suck start a Harley from 50 feet away."
"You don't love me...."

That'll either get you slapped, dumped, or the best blow job of your life.

Re:I'd still get nagged...

[Tackhead]

> "I hear Shelly's daughter can suck start a Harley from 50 feet away."
>"You don't love me...."
>
> That'll either get you slapped, dumped, or the best blow job of your life.

Win-win-win scenario. :)

Formation

[whereiswaldo]

Did this diamond form based on the same principles as diamonds here on Earth? I thought coal had to be very highly compressed for ages before it became a diamond. Not so?

Re:Formation

[zokrath]

All it takes is blue spandex, a cape, and a wry grin given to an amazed coal worker.

Re:Formation

[MachDelta]

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*

Re:Formation

[Xeriar]

Sort of. Stars will fuse elements into heavier and heavier elements, up to iron (since making heavier elements actually takes energy, any larger atoms are made in negligable quantities outside of supernovas).

Anyway, my (educated) guess would be that this given star had enough mass to fuse elements up to carbon, but not further - not enough to sustain its continued existance as a 'star', anyway.

At least, I'm inferring from the article that this star is fast becoming a 'black dwarf' - I could be wrong and this is just a white dwarf in its carbon stage, but by that measure there would certainly be far, far larger diamonds out there (and in great numbers).

Re:Formation

[IWasHopsoned]

I can imagine that its own gravity was enough to compress it into a diamond.

Re:Formation

[zabieru]

Well, that's actually a myth. They won't fuse all the way to iron normally... Mostly just to carbon, a little higher in some very hot or very unusual stars, but generally the limit is carbon. Yes, theoretically fusing higher elements produces a bit of energy, but for reasons I don't entirely understand it doesn't actually happen. Most everything higher than carbon comes from supernovas. Novas and near-nova stars produce carbon and I think lithium. Regular stars produce pretty much just helium. If you want more, ask a real physicist. I ain't one.

Re:Formation

[Metex]

The formation of diamonds is actually suppose to be a spontanious action however the reason we need the large amount of heat and pressure is to get over a chemical hump called the Ea, Activation energy. Essentially the Ea servers to create an intermediat compound before reaching your final product. I cant remeber the values off the top of my head while drunk but if it wasnt for Ea and those sturdy pi bonds diamonds have, coal would be turning into diamonds which would be turning into graphite.

Re:Formation

[nerdguy569]

They won't fuse all the way to iron normally... Mostly just to carbon

not necessarily, i supose that you haven't ever heard of the CNO process, in which at 10 solar masses or more, the carbon catalyses a reaction which turns two hydrogens into helium, check here

Re:Formation

[juhaz]

Um, it's a heart of a (ex-)star.

Temperature and pressure there _vastly_ exceeds anything you'd ever found on Earth, so you can bet that "very highly compressed" is a huge understatement.

This is not probably even a diamond nothing resembling the ones we have at least, it's much more tightly pressed than the lowly stones Earth has.

Re:Formation

[GreenPhreak]

The lifetime of the star (and the elements that it ends up fusing to sustain that lifetime) are determined only by the initial mass of the star. Most stars are low mass stars (it's easier to form smaller clumps of gas), and these stars take a long time to run out of their hydrogen supply (in fact the least massive of these still haven't run out, and won't for several billion years).
As stars run out of hydrogen, they start fusing other elements present in their cores. This takes them through different stages of stellar evolution (red giant, horizontal branch stars, assymptotic branch stars, etc.) They continue to gain energy from this process until they reach iron. When these stars fuse elements heavier than iron, they don't actually get a net energy output from the reaction and thus their pressure source (fusion) cannot sustain the equilibrium against the gravitational force that constantly tries to collapse them. This is when a supernovae event occurs. As the star collapses under its own gravitation, the core rapidly fuses anything it can as the density increases. This is why the previous poster is right in saying that the main source for elements heavier than iron in the universe is supernovae.

Re:Formation

[GreenPhreak]

This is not a chunk of a planet. This is the remaining core of an old star. This is a carbon white dwarf star, which is to say that it is a star that started out at around 4-8 solar masses and is now at the end of its lifetime. Stars with less than ~8 solar masses do not become supernovae (neutron stars or black holes), they become planetary nebulae. They slough off their outer layers of gas and leave only a hot, white core (the white dwarf). The most well-known examples of these objects are the Ring Nebula (M57), Dumbbell Nebula (M27), and Owl Nebula (M97).

In the white dwarf stage, it doesn't fuse like a normal star (unless it accretes material and causes fusion on the surface as when we witness a nova), but it continues to glow like a coal that you have taken out of the fire. It will continue to glow and radiate away its energy until over time, it cools enough that its interior can crystallize. After even more time, it becomes so cool that it stops radiating altogether, a crystallized rock floating through space.

Re:Formation

[zabieru]

I have, actually, but you'll notice that I didn't describe ANY specific reactions at all. You'll also note that I said they only generally go as far as carbon, and that if you know your periodic table as well as you seem to know your astrophysics, you'll recall that carbon is farther along than helium. Furthermore, stars at 10 solar masses would fit the 'very hot stars' caveat I put in my original post. My point was not that stars followed a neat sequence linearly up the table until carbon, then stopped. It was that formation of elements heavier than carbon in non-nova stars is very rare.

valuables in space

[jjeffries]

I wonder if these kinds of discoveries could get otherwise uninterested parties into the space biz. Plenty of scenerios have us mining the moon for oxygen, fuel, etc, in order to survive up there, but what about other minerals/precious stones? If a huge chunk of [gold|platinium|unobtainium] were found on the moon, would it be cost effective to mine it and send it back to earth?

I'm sure there will be other such finds. This huge diamond probably doesn't even scratch the surface. (ha!)

Re:valuables in space

[Galvatron]

No, it would not be cost effective. Even if the moon were made of solid gold, and all you had to do was pick it up off the ground, you still could not go there, pick it up, and bring it back for less than market price ($3-400/oz).

on closer inspection

[mattkime]

on closer inspection it is revealed to be cubic zirconium which drastically reduces it value at the local pawn shop.

Announcing...

[ricochet81]

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.

Numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

Phrases like '5 million trillion trillion" are silly. They should put the number's real name, write it out in digits, and-or use scientific notation (or a variant like C-style "e notation"). It ticks me off -- the magnitude is already so large that it's incredibly hard to visualize, so they should put it in the clearest format possible. Do people say "there are sixty hundred hundred hundred hundred people alive on earth"? No, of course not, they say "six billion" or "6,000,000,000". If the people printing this assume that no one knows the words for numbers above a trillion, they could at least use the semi-easily-parsed "followed by n zeros" format consistently.

Re:Numbers

[crabpeople]

" They should put the number's real name"

well i see they took the same amount of time and effort as you did. do you actually know what a number with 34 zeros behind it is called??
no? well then. shut the fuck up - it is in the clearest possible format for most people.

oh and i did bother to google for it and the first result tells me that it is 10 decilion to americans, or 10 000 quintillion to the rest of the world.

dont just bitch, actually try and learn something - its not hard.

Re:Numbers

[blincoln]

They should put the number's real name

*Is* there even a proper name for "5 million trillion trillion"? I've heard that the British use some funny system where a billion is a million million instead of a thousand million, and if that's true they might have a name for it, but do people who use normal number-naming schemes?

Re:Numbers

[concepthouse]

At least the journalist on this piece didn't tell us how much the star weighed using the IEEE international standard of Volkswagen Beetles.

Re:Numbers

[RogerWilco]

In the rest of the World:
million: 6 zeroes
milliard: 9 zeroes
billion: 12
billiard: 15
trillion: 18
trilliard: 21
quadrillion: 24
quintillion: 30
hexillion or sexillion: 36
septillion: 42
octillion: 48
nonillion: 54
decillion: 60
undecillion: 66
duodecillion: 72
A duodecillion is about as big as you get, roughly being the number of particles in the galaxy. You could keep on counting if you liked, the system is a derivative of roman numerals (with some greek for flavour).
In the 17th century the French decided to get rid of all the "iard"'s and have steps of 3 zeroes instead of 6 between the "ion"'s. The USA adopted this system.
The Brittish kept the original system, and in 1948 the French reverted to the "iard" system, this leaving the USA as the only country ussing a different system, giving rise to much misunderstanding and potential problems like space probes hitting Mars.

Adriaan Renting.

Re:Numbers

[jkcity]

I am prety sure that britain now uses the same number for a billion and a trillion as america, maybe maths people don't though but the averge person does..

Re:Numbers

[The Creator]

or 10 000 quintillion to the rest of the world.

No, 10 quintiljards.

Re:Numbers

[Ben Hutchings]

Britain adopted the American system a while ago.

Re:Numbers

[Tango42]

I expect it would be the other way round. Maths and science people who need to be able to communicate with the rest of the world use the US system, and people who don't use such large numbers often still use the old system.

BTW, I am British, and I know for a fact that the official definition of a billion is 10^9, or a thousand million. I'm just less sure of what people generally use.

Re:Numbers

[Just Some Guy]

do you actually know what a number with 34 zeros behind it is called??

Yeah, it's called n*10^34 by everyone I'd ever discuss such large numbers with. Assigning an arbitrary and inconsistent name (see your US vs. everybody comment) is just plain dumb. Do you think crypto guys convert between decillions and decajillions when discussing collision rates, or that physicists have any interest in petadillions or hexamuphillions other than when they have to write a press release? No. There's a widely used and accurate naming system for numbers - you just use the numbers themselves. It's easy, it's universal, and it's a Good Thing.

Re:Numbers

[lildogie]

Sorry, most people don't know the difference between a million and a billion. Showing them the two numerals 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 doesn't help.

BTW, they don't know the difference between a number and a numeral, either.

Re:Numbers

[thebigmacd]

Canada uses thousand = 10^3, million = 10^6, billion = 10^9, trillion = 10^12, quadrillion = 10^15, etc just like the U.S.

The U.S. isn't the only country in North America!

Re:Numbers

[damien_kane]

They should put the number's real name, write it out in digits, and-or use scientific notation (or a variant like C-style "e notation")

Ok, but the question remains... exactly how many VW Bugs is that? I mean that is the new standard for measuring displacement, just as LOC is the standardized measurement of data size, is it not?

Re:Numbers

[Reality Master 101]

Wha...? Let's break this down. Is the way they wrote it clear? Yes, absolutely. If they pulled some obscure word out of their ass that meant the same thing, would it be clear? No.

Therefore, they did the right thing.

Re:Numbers

[mblumber]

Put it in terms I can understand.

How many Library of Congresses is it? That's what I want to know.

Re:Numbers

[thebigmacd]

I suggest you read the post again. quote: thousand = 10^3, million=10^6

Re:Numbers

[dandelion_wine]

What glue was I sniffing? Just so.

Re:Numbers

[chongo]

''*Is* there even a proper name for "5 million trillion trillion"?''''

You can find the name for "5 million trillion trillion" == 5e30 by using my English name of a number, an open source Perl program that can generate names of numbers of any size (e.g., the English name of the largest known prime).

In the above article, one could replace ''5 million trillion trillion pounds'' with:

• five nonillion pounds in the so-called American system
• five quintillion pounds in the so-called European system

And one could replace ''10 billion trillion trillion carats'' with:

• ten decillion carats in the so-called American system
• ten quintilliard carats in the so-called European system

Re:Numbers

[A55M0NKEY]

A billiard.... There are 15 balls in billiards and 15 zeroes in a billiard.. A coincidence?

Wouldn't matter

[SavannahLion]

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.

Re:Wouldn't matter

[Jonathan Platt]

Since it would take light 50 years to travel to the planet

I never get this, do Americans say 'it would take 10 miles to drive to the shops'?

Re:Wouldn't matter

[davejenkins]

Since it would take light 50 years to travel to the planet

I never get this, do Americans say 'it would take 10 miles to drive to the shops'?

Well,

1. You would be better off to not try and generalize a population of 300 million people. Some are more smart than you, others probably not as much.

2. Read the sentence again. Do you understand what a light-year is? It is the distance it takes light to travel in one year. Since the planet is 50 light-years away, it would take light 50 years to get there (the sentence is correct).

I think that, in your rush to sound smug and superior to those "dumb" Americans, you`ve tripped up on your own arrogance.

Kinda Ironical, eh Ren?

Re:Wouldn't matter

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Those with a cheap electric car do.
'it would take a 10 mile extention cord to drive to the shops'?

Re:Wouldn't matter

[Ctrl-Z]

No. Americans wouldn't say 'shops'.

Um...not quite

[UPAAntilles]

It's a white dwarf, the diamond would be sorrounded by plasma and gas.

Re:Um...not quite

[Jebediah21]

Heh. I don't even worry... 50 light years a way is a big enough barrier to me. Might as well start buying coal.

Re:Um...not quite

[ktanmay]

Yes, and add to that all the density and intense gravitational pull and we would probably do better here on earth to synthesize diamonds.
50 light years is pretty close, wonder if the early reptiles may have witnessed the nova explosion, in fact it would be interesting to find out if it had any effect on life here on earth.

Re:Um...not quite

[floamy]

I've heard that a teaspoon of a white-dwarfs matter would weight over 3 tons here on Earth.

Re:Um...not quite

[eclectro]

until the white dwarf cools off that is. Then it becomes a crystalline diamond core surrounded by rock.

It takes about ten billion years for a white dwarf (average) to cool off to the point of not being visible. The age of the universe is about 13-14 billion years old.

However, do not plan on going to the white dwarf to go diamond mining, as it is still quite hot, and it's gravity would squish you flat.

But eventually they will become dark cold diamond cinders.

But one interesting thing is that white dwarfs can accumulate material from companion stars over time. When this white dwarf obtains 1.4 solar mass it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit, and a type 1a supernova explosion occurs. You don't want to be around.

If you were thinking of collecting boken diamonds from the aftermath, think again.

Diamond undergoes catastrophic allotropic conversion conversion to graphite at 1800 C. This is exceeded a few million times in a supernova producing carbon ions.

So, the conclusion I draw from this -- the carbon in our bodies could have come from diamonds, having originated from a white dwarf that crystallized and later became a type 1a supernova

Correct me if I'm wrong, physicists.

Re:Um...not quite

[at_18]

A white dwarf has a mass similar to our Sun, so the parent comment was right.

Re:Um...not quite

[mubar]

Basic Physics: It's the fusion reactions that keep the sun and other stars from collapsing to a compact package. White dwarf can't produce enough fusion reactions anymore, so gravity wins.

Re:Um...not quite

[UPAAntilles]

Hydrogen and Helium still do not magically become rock when it cools.

Re:Um...not quite

[bpiltz]

Your statement implies that a star is nothing but a hot collection of hydrogen and helium doing nothing, but bouncing off each other (being hot). If you let it cool you have cold hydrogen and helium? Your hot ball of gas works like this on a conventional scale, but if you massively increase the pressure with gravity by adding more and more hydrogen...light!

Solar hydrogen under massive gravitational compression is undergoing fusion to produce helium and is releasing radiation to keep you warm. The helium then undergoes fusion, and so on. These are nuclear reactions (H-bombs), not chemical reactions (forest fires), or just hot matter (boilers full of steam) When you detonate a nuclear weapon (uranium, plutonium, heavy water, or combinations of these) where does the radioactive iodine, cesium, etc come from? Fision and fusion - recombination of the neutrons and protons from one element into other elements release massive amounts of energy - far beyond simple oxidation reactions (the shuffling around of electrons).

The byproducts of solar fusion are carbon (diamond), oxygen, sodium, silicon, nitrogen, etc. All the elements on the periodic chart are the ashes of nuclear fusion of hydrogen. Supernovae spread them around the universe and a new star can form out of the residue (and a few nice planets, too). A second generation star (our sun) continues the nuclear burning - making heavier elements than the first star. Eventually, as the universe expands and cools, it can not sustain fusion with an abundance of heavy elements, low hydrogen density, and ever-weakening gravitational tug from far-flung matter. The lights go out.

It seems counter-intuitive, but hydrogen has the least entropy of all the elements. It's all down hill and chaos from there.

And that is the story of how you came to give your lover some stardust as an engagement token.

I just don't get this "lust for the diamond sun" business. Let's say you went there and dragged the whole thing back as nice cut, 5 carat, gaudy engagement rings (excluding the mass problems). You would have to give them away because the local collection of diamonds on earth wouldn't be so rare any more - hence its value. On the grand scale of the universe we just happen to live in a diamond deficient locale and humans (similar to ravens) like things that sparkle in the sunlight.

I sure am glad we got plenty of silicon to go around!!

Don't tell "W" there's a moon with a liquid methane ocean orbiting Saturn or he'll scrub the Mars mission.

...galaxy's largest diamond.

[AltGrendel]

So far.

I hear that Tau Ceti is bragging that they bought a larger one.

But I'll bet it's not flawless

[The_Steel_General]

Everyone remember, carat is only one of the Four C's. You need to consider the color (it was only blue-white while it was burning) the clarity (probably easy to see some flaws if you got close enough) and the cut (currently round but not brilliant, I suspect)

So, don't overpay for it, no matter what the salesman says about size mattering...

TSG

Weird Shit from Outer Space we'd like to see...

[heironymouscoward]

- 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."

Wait til De Beers finds out

[bigberk]

They'll probably stuff the diamond star into a warehouse complex somewhere in Texas, force slaves to chisel off small amounts of it to create the perception of "rareness", and artificially drive up the price to screw ignorant consumers.

I'm reaching high up

[fractaltiger]

This puts another spin on the phrase "reaching the stars for HER" right?

The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Peter Cooper]

If a huge chunk of [gold|platinium|unobtainium] were found on the moon, would it be cost effective to mine it and send it back to earth?

The main problem is that the Earth's economy would be screwed up if something of immense value was brought back.

The value of gold (and our reliance on it to balance certain markets) or oil is based on there being a fixed amount of it, a regulated supply of it, or both. If you brought back several trillion dollars worth of gold in one giant lump from the Moon, the price of gold on Earth would crash, and currencies based on the gold standard would be made worthless overnight.

This is because gold is, effectively, useless, and only holds stature for traditional and rarity reasons (i.e. 'lots of gold makes me look good because there's so little of it available'). If they brought back significant amounts of oil, however, things would be quite different, as oil has a non-cosmetic use.

This is just how I understand it. An economist can correct me or fill in the blanks.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Arlet]

This is because gold is, effectively, useless, and only holds stature for traditional and rarity reasons (i.e. 'lots of gold makes me look good because there's so little of it available'). If they brought back significant amounts of oil, however, things would be quite different, as oil has a non-cosmetic use.

Actually, gold is a very useful material. Check out this link for some uses. It doesn't corrode, it is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and can be made into really thin wires without breaking. An abundant supply of the stuff would probably help to find more uses for which it is currently too expensive.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[silentbozo]

Gold and diamonds have industrial uses as conductors and abrasives. While having a large amount of either would depress the commodity markets (and send many speculators to the depths of dispair) it would bolster the industries that utilize these items for manufacturing.

Imagine if gold were cheaper than lead - we could market environmentally friendly "lead-free" ammunition. If we had access to diamond sheets large enough, perhaps we could construct windows out of it. Instead of copper wiring, we'd have gold wiring instead. Circuit boards would be plated with gold, and maybe we'd see the return of $20 gold coins that are actually worth $20.

What would REALLY be valuable would be catalytic elements like platinum or palladium. Bring back enough of those and whole new industries could be built around them...

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Anonymous Coward]

If we had access to diamond sheets large enough, perhaps we could construct windows out of it.

Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any solid known to man. Not what I'd want to make windows out of (though double panes would probably still insulate resonably well). It also shatters easily - its hardness would prevent scratches, however.

It has the highest refraction index, so I guess you could make some fine optical instruments with diamond lenses. The fact that it's next to impossible to scratch wouldn't hurt either - diamond glasses, anyone?

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[BobTheLawyer]

in the medium to long term, flooding the market with dirt cheap gold would be pretty beneficial for the world economy. Gold would find all kinds of industrial uses that are currently impracticable, as it's an excellent conductor, highly malleable and broadly non-toxic.

In the short term, if it happened with no warning then it would instantly eliminate the reserves of the US and those other countries who keep their reserves in gold. Clearly this is going to cause serious instability but very hard to say what the other macroeconomic effects would be, as those countries (e.g. the UK) who don't have substantial gold reserves anymore hold other countries' currencies in their reserves - i.e. even they'd be indirectly exposed.

Currencies based on the gold standard would indeed be in trouble, so it's just as well there aren't any.

Of course all the commodity traders would lose fortunes, but it's hard to give a fuck.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[bluGill]

I'm not so sure that gold would replace copper wiring. Copper is a much better conductor. Alumium used to be used for house wiring, but many fired have been blamed on it. Most of those fires were blamed on Al being soft, but then Au is soft as well, so I'm not sure how it would fit.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Lando]

If I remember the chart of resistances correctly, diamond is even more conductive than silver by about 5-10 times I think...

Someone interested in looking up the link?

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Matthaeus]

In the short term, if it happened with no warning then it would instantly eliminate the reserves of the US and those other countries who keep their reserves in gold.

I think it would be almost insanely hard for the US to convert its gold stockpile into another form of currency without causing a panic.

And as far as warning goes, once it becomes known that the value of gold will drop, the value of gold has effectively dropped.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Lost Race]

Diamond does not conduct electricity, but it is an excellent conductor of heat, far better than silver. That's what we'll make our heatsinks out of someday.

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[Rob Simpson]

I remember in Bloom they used zirconia for their windows, which is a apparently a good insulator.

Now, a diamond heatsink would be neat. (And possibly necessary in a few years, at this rate...)

Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds?

[jd_esguerra]

DAMN! Then I could could put real gold rims on my lowrider.

2010 : Odyssey Two

[MichaelGCD]

I remember reading that in 2010: Odyssey Two. In the book, there's a diamond the size of earth at it's core.

Re:2010 : Odyssey Two

[OverlordQ]

Damn that must of been a big book then.

Re:2010 : Odyssey Two

[shawnce]

In the book 2061 it talks about humans capturing a huge shard of the diamond core that was ejected after jupiter was ignited at the end of the 2010 book. We (humans) use this shard to cover earth structures with diamond coverings and a build huge ring around the earth from it for use as a space platform if I recall correctly (read the book 10+ years ago).

...or I could all be f'd up...

Re:2010 : Odyssey Two

[Anonymous Coward]

SPOILER WARNING. IF YOU CARE ABOUT NOT HAVING PARTS OF ARTHUR C. CLARKES BOOKS REVEALED TO YOU, READ NO FURTHER.
Both you and the parent are off by one book. 2010 did not have the giant diamond, 2061 had it. Chunks of it were ejected from Jupiters core and one mountain sized shard managed to land on Europa, amazingly enough doing it at a speed that did cause devestation across the entire moon. A little suspension of disbelief is needed there but it is lessened by the possibility that the monolith may have intervened to stop a tragedy from befalling the species it was nurturing on Europa. Of course, why it would let it land at all is a bit of a question, but it could have been because the monolith saw no reason to waste more energy than absolutely neccessary or maybe it was even some sort of test for humanity.
Humanity mining the giant diamond chunks floating around would have happened between 2061 and the book 3001. In 3001, humanity has advanced quite a lot, with their technology getting close to "indistinguishable from magic" from our point of view. One of the astronauts who died in 2001 is found frozen in space, surely suffering damage to every single cell and completely dead by all modern standards. He is revived and goes on to take part, along with HAL in the destruction of the monolith, which has gotten instructions back from the main office to wipe out humanity because we got a pretty bad report card around the beginning of the millenium.

10 billion trillion trillion???

[fafalone]

Why must people write numbers like that? It's unfathomable anyway so just write the proper name (10 decillion in the US system) instead of obnoxious "billion trillion billion mllion" nonsense. Writing 10 billion trillion trillion doesn't help people understand it better, it just annoys those who know how to correctly name extremely large numbers.

Re:10 billion trillion trillion???

[BillyBlaze]

Not too many people know that decillion means 10^33. But what they ought to do is just write that.

Slashdot has already run that story

[Texas Rose on Lava L]

Diamonds -- Are they really worth the cost?.

Re:Slashdot has already run that story

[loyalsonofrutgers]

Oh, sure, the stories have been run everywhere, including, as you point out, Slashdot. I didn't mean the story would be a good instead-ran for Slashdot, simply that it would be a more appropriate story for the media to report on for some sort of "human interest" fluff piece on Valentine's Day. Instead they perpetuate mistruths and misperceptions.

My point is that this story arises now for two reasons: 1) It is Valentine's Day, and diamonds and Valentine's Day go hand in hand, and 2) Diamonds are considered particularly valuable and special in our society. Both of which tap into the public's complete and utter lack of acceptance that diamonds are a scam that they willingly allow to be perpetuated against themselves.

Besides, this is also the same public of which 3/4ths believed (and I'm speaking fairly anecdotally here, but this sort of thing has been demonstrated time and again) that Iraq had nuclear weapons. The truth may have been reported upon, and a majority of people may have heard it at some point, but all it takes is one DeBeers commercial (or one more misleading headline) and they're right back to thinking they're worth the moon.

Re:Slashdot has already run that story

[DAldredge]

Can you site the source for your 75% comment?

ob Rainbow Brite reference

[Nakanai_de]

I hope an evil bitch-queen from space doesn't enslave a bunch of cute, fuzzy sprites to cover it with netting and tow it away. I was really looking forward to spring.

Valentines Day?

[fmlug.org]

Yes but can fedex or UPS deliver it for Valentines day, any geek could get laid with one of these.

Rumor has it...

[letdownjournals]

... Kobe Bryant's already bought it, to buy off his wife.

calculations (again)

[maddh]

I was curious about if they could land on that to mine it (interstellar distances aside) what kinda gravity would be at the surface. so i did some simple physics calculation, double check my work.

Gravitatotional Force
Fg = G * m1 * m2 * r^-2
Gravitational Acceleration Fg/m2
Ag = G *m1 * r^-2

G = 6.67E-11
m1= 5 million trillion trillion lbs = 5 * 10^6 * 10^12 * 10^12 lbs= 5E30 lbs *(1kg/2.2lbs) = 2.26E30 kg
r = diameter of 2500mi/2 = 1250mi * (1609 m/mi) = 2011680 meters
Ag= 6.67E-11 * 2.26E30kg * (2011680m)^-2 = 37,249,159.4 m/s^2

Ag = (37,249,159.4 m/s^2)/(9.8 m/s^2)= 3,800,934.63 g's

3.8 million times earth gravity?
Unless there was some mistake in the way they described the mass (million billion trillion) that seems pretty rough right?

again correct me if i was wrong.

Re:calculations (again)

[Negative Response]

I didn't carefully look at your numbers, but could believe the final result. Just think about it, what force helped the carbon core to form a giant crystal?

Re:calculations (again)

[Hunzpunz]

I'd readjust the calculation a little bit, it was talked about 10 million trillion trillion carats, not 5 million trillion trillion pounds... a carat is 1 carat, and therefore i'd adjust the result by dividing it by 1250 ((a pound / 0.2 grams)/2 (because he started with 5 billion... instead of 10...)).

so we'll end with round about 3040.74 g's, if everything else is right, which i didn't check.

Re:calculations (again)

[Theobon]

Look at the density and then it makes more sense
goolge
(5e30 pounds) / (((((2 500 miles)^3) * 4) / 3) * pi) = 8.31343401 x 10^09 kg / m3
* (1000 kg/m^3 / g/cm^3) = 8.3134 x 10^12 g/cm^3
FYI, dimond has a density of 3.52g/cm^3 .... I don't think this is diamond anymore.

Re:calculations (again)

[Fear the Clam]

3.8 million times earth gravity?

As my wife pointed out, such a gravitational field would make anyone more attractive.

Re:calculations (again)

[maddh]

5 million trillion trillion pounds
10 billion trillion trillion carats

You said 10 million trillion trillion carats instead of 10 billion trillion trillion as in the story
so raising your answer by 3 orders of mag. brings it back to some 3 million g's

Your answer does sound better, i'm guessing the original writer of the source may have just been confused about the order of magnitude.

maybe we could just blow it up from far away and collect the chunks instead :)

Cheesy?

[flappinbooger]

A cheesy, unrealistic simulation

Oooo... Sparkly!

Beware

[Zork the Almighty]

It's a conflict diamond - from a war a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

More reasonable units of measure

[jms]

According to Google Calculator, this diamond has ~ 330,000 times the mass of the planet earth.

Re:More reasonable units of measure

[can56]

According to my calculations, google is way off. The volume of this rock is ~1/33 that of the earth, so unless it's composed of neutronium carbon, how could it weigh 330,000 times more? (Ask a stupid question ...)

Re:More reasonable units of measure

[eggstasy]

It's easier to say that it has slightly more than the mass of our Sun.

Re:More reasonable units of measure

[juhaz]

It's a white dwarf.

Not quite neutronium, but yes, those small little things pack a helluva lot matter into small volume.

Acceleration due to Gravity?

[infonick]

anyone here up on their physics? i think i'm doing this right...

acceleration = Gm/r^2

G = Gravitational constant = 6.67*10^-11
m = mass (Kg) = 2.26796185*10^30 Kg (or - 5*10^30 Lb)
r = radius to the center of the object (m) = 2011680 m (or - 2500miles / 2)

acceleration = (6.67*10^-11)(2.26796185*10^30 Kg) / (2011680 m ^2)

acceleration due to gravity = 37,380,386.1 m/s^2 !?!?!?!?

High quality animation..

[h0tblack]

Is it just me or does it look suspiciously like a scene from the TV series of The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy?

Well well

[mog007]

I bet this is going to piss off DeBeers to no end, but...

I for one, welcome our new diamond overlords.

Re:Funny. . .

[Bastian]

. . .I tried telling my wife pretty much same thing on our wedding night. She still wasn't consoled.

um what?

[Anonymous Coward]

this is what i could find

Q: What is RETSYN?
A: RETSYN is a Warner-Lambert Company trademark for the active ingredient in CERTS, Cool Mint Drops, and CERTS Power Mints. RETSYN* consists of a combination of copper gluconate and hydrogenated cottonseed oil. It is RETSYN, in addition to the flavor, which is responsible for the efficacy of CERTS against breath odours. The hydrogenated vegetable oil and the copper gluconate absorb odors in the mouth.

which KIND of makes sense but is really very obscure that i find it hard to believe that it would go plus 4 funny so fast

Re:um what?

[VValdo]

Dude, it's a glistening drop.

Sheesh. Next you'll wanna know what nougat is.

W

Re:um what?

[errxn]

I do want to know what nougat is. In the rhetorical sense.

Giant Diamond Asteroid on crash course with earth

[ArcticPuppy]

..Women worldwide ambigous...

The doomsday is here!

[infonick]

acceleration of earth towards the largest diamond in the galaxy!

acceleration = G(M)(m)/r^2

G = gravitational constant = 6.67*10^-11
M = mass of the diamond = 2.26796185*10^30 Kg
m = mass of earth = 5.9742*10^24 Kg
r = distance between the center of earth and the center of the diamond = 4.7302642*10^17 meters

acceleration = ((6.67*10^-11)(2.26796185*10^30) (5.9742*10^24)) / ((4.7302642*10^17)^2)

acceleration = 4.03896919*10^9 m/s^2

(4.03896919*10^9)/(9.8) = the g's that earth experiances as a result

Earth experiences 412,139,713 g's

is this a good or bad thing???

Same thing here!

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

getting it out would require us to blow through 30 miles of very hard rock.

For my girlfriend to get her diamond gift from me, she had to do the same.

Blow...very hard rock...

Re:Same thing here!

[The Clockwork Troll]

Mine did it for a pearl necklace, I guess I got off cheap.

Re:Same thing here!

[wed128]

is it me...or did you cram like 4 puns in that sentance?

Re:Same thing here!

[smoker2]

I thought a girls best friend was a rabbit ?

DeBeers?

[Lord_Dweomer]

So how is DeBeers going to get all those miners from Sierra Leone into space? WTF would you call them anyways? Leonauts?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

[songbo]

Reminds me of a nursery rhyme we used to sing in school.

Twinkle twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are

Push it in the nearest supernova, it's evil!!

[cafeteria]

If this thing makes it overhere, it will void all our values and ruin earths' economy. My suggestion is to cryo Bush & Partners for a mission to prevent this thing falling into evil hands. Liberace would have liked it!

Re:Push it in the nearest supernova, it's evil!!

[infonick]

but you see, we are traveling towards it at the same time. and if we get within a certin radius, the gravity on earth won't matter. currently, this thing has a gravitational pull of 6.76068626*10^-14m/s^2 on me. now, thats pretty small. I'm not going to sweat over it.

However, when this thing gets to be 3.92887084*10^10m (39,288,708.4 Km or 24,412,871.6 miles), it will pull me at a rate of 9.8 m/s. people lighter than me will begin their fateful trip and "fall" towards the galactic diamond. I however, will at this point be able to float around because the gravity of the diamond will cancel out the gravity of earth. however, it will be short lived, since as earth would continue to get closer, i would join the light-weight people in falling towards the galactic diamond.

so, if you think that this diamond will ruin our economy, your right. As it approaches, there will be no economy - because there will be noone in the workforce.

and now...

[DotQuantum]

... and now to make [the 14th] it complete, where is the /. article about the largest chocolate in the galaxy ?!

Percieved Value

[mac os ken]

Sorry to post this on Valentine's Day but it must be said. Diamonds are not really a precious stone. Most of the world's diamond supplies are locked away by DeBeers and released into the market slowly to inflate perceived value. Diamonds have no real resale value, they only have sentimental value. Ever try to sell your diamond encrusted jewelry? You'll never get as much as you paid for them unless your piece is literally one in a million.

Diamonds unfortunately are the product of blood feuds, multinational marketing values, and an evil corporate identity.

Comics

[Flyboy Connor]

Sounds like this would have an irresistable attraction on Scrooge McDuck.

lucy is over there too

[ndevice]

all these replies, and still no mention of lucy - in the sky with diamonds.

Re:lucy is over there too

[Insipid Trunculance]

I never knew abt the drugs (well LSD) references in the song till i was in singapore.It was a big news when teh ministry of culture removed their ban on this song.

Re:Arthur C. Clarke's 2063: Odyssey Three

[billy reuben]

I seem to recall something about the UN building having a diamond coating at the end of one of the books, and a monolith sitting in front of the building as decoration. At the end of said book, the monolith begins to wake up, foreshadowing a new phase of monolith-catalyzed excitement.

Moderators, come on!

[Sara Chan]

Moderators, the link in the parent post has nothing to do with the diamond or the story--it's about another topic entirely. Check the link to see.

The poster is a well-known troll: look at his history. Please mod the jerk into oblivion.

Hmm...

[Doctor Yo-Yo]

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those. 5 million trillion pound diamond. Check. All we need to do now is change polygamy laws and we'll be set.

stupid

[supernova87a]

i'm a little tired of astronomers trotting out stupid gimmicks to "market" each one of their discoveries and try to make it sexy. I know that you need a catch line to get people interested and all, but stuff like this is just stupid.

when I read about a huge diamond in space, I expect a little more than a white dwarf discovery. Come on, this is ridiculous.

space diamonds?

[axxackall]

If it exists in the Universe as a whole, it can exist also in pieces. There could be many reasons why another big diamond would be broken into millions of smaller (but still huge) pieces.

We know (we think we know) that there is a lot of dark matter between star ssystems and between galaxies. No need to go that far - there is a belt of cold rocks outside of Pluto. Who knows, maybe some of those rocks are broken pieces of one of such diamond star.

Now, it's a matter of time that they will discover of proof of such diamond rocks there and begin hunting for them. Can it stimulate investors to space industry?

Re:space diamonds?

[Wes Janson]

The problem is that little "breaking them open" part. Short of a very massive C+ projectile, or the impact of a planet, there's not much that could withstand both the 3000 Gs and then clear off the surface wholesale.

Re:I hope this is a troll

[ktanmay]

Why do you even bother posting, RTFA, it takes hundreds of millions of years for an exploding nova to cool down to the state that the white dwarf mentioned is in.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, who do think was alive on this planet to witness the nova explosion? Next time try asking your parents before posting trollish replies.

Not necessarily diamond

[doru]

First of all, the preprint is actually at :

http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0402046

Second, nowhere in the paper is there any mention of "diamond". Crystallized carbon can also be in graphite form, so it might actually be a very large pencil lead...

Re:Not necessarily diamond

[juhaz]

Crystallized carbon in core of white dwarf will probably be nothing even near any of the forms we are familiar with.

It's something else we don't even have a name for, aside from general "degenerate matter"

Ugh!

[severoon]

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

Yes! Cat's Eye Nebula!

[Anonymous Coward]

that's the cat's eye nebula in the background of that cheesy unrealistic simulation! I have a poster of that one. used to sit on my desktop, too!

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archiv e/ releases/1995/01/image/a

why it's complicated

[tid242]

You get married each year? Tough break, bro.

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

Wow 500000000...

[thallgren]

5 million trillion trillion pounds! How much is that in kg? :)

Re:Wow 500000000...

[gellenburg]

a lot.

Re:Arthur C. Clarke's 2063: Odyssey Three

[blincoln]

Mod parent up, he's right, it was the UN building. My memory is getting fuzzy in my old age.

Re:Arthur C. Clarke's 2063: Odyssey Three

[oohp]

Yup, I wanted to write about it too but I looked in the thread first and here it is. Seems pretty logical diamonds could form in the center of gas giants at that pressure & heat.

Dammit!

[Mistshadow2k4]

My husband only got me a 120 gig external hard drive for Valentine's Day! What a gyp!

How can you tell?

[twoslice]

on closer inspection it is revealed to be cubic zirconium which drastically reduces it value at the local pawn shop.

I downloaded the larger images and inspected them at the highest zoom level with inconclusive results. Were you using the Gimp pluggin that detects CZ?

Damn Mice.

[KnitWit]

It's unreasonable projects like this that put Magrathea out of business...

Interesting article on this in Wired last year:

[janbjurstrom]

The New Diamond Age

DeBeers?

[marinebane]

i hope this hasnt got anything to do with Lucious DeBeers? - Now that would be a conspiracy... It's all coming back to me now

That's what I'll name my rock band!

[TWX]

I think that "Metallic Hydrogen" would sound really cool!

Re:That's what I'll name my rock band!

[corngrower]

I think that "Metallic Hydrogen" would sound really cool!

I thought the same thing when I read that post.

Re:That's what I'll name my rock band!

[styrotech]

I think that "Metallic Hydrogen" would sound really cool!

So your band is like Def Leppard or Poison, but even lighter?

Re:You're mistaken about Diamond sheets

[rossdee]

" As a matter of fact, take an overhead light projector, the type that some professors use. Then place a diamond on top of the light surface, you will see that the diamond creates a shadown and no light gets through. The diamond is practically opaque."

This would be because of the shape of the diamond. The facets shape would refract the ligt out to the side at different angles (accentuated by diamonds high refractuve index)

If you had a completely flat diamond, or one in the shape of a cube, the light would go straight through.

"Cheesy, unrealistic simulation also available"

[Anonymous Coward]

"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.

sell it on ebay!

[drago]

Hey, has anybody thought about selling the thing on ebay? Auction starting at $1, self-collectors only ;-)

Re:sell it on ebay!

[May Kasahara]

No reserve? ;)

Re:sell it on ebay!

[dhaines]

Buyer pays shipping.

Re:sell it on ebay!

[lposeidon]

Home Shopping Network. only 666 billion payments of .99 cents. plus S&H let them try micropayments on that rock.

Gold reserves non-issue

[tjstork]

World currency markets are not based on gold standards anymore. There's just not enough gold to go around to capture the economic value being traded in today's electronic money.

If the world were flooded with gold, industrialized nations would use it as a resource in producing consumer goods. We would have gold everything, but, the world markets would remain intact.

76 wifes, 65 sons, 86 daughters...

[da5idnetlimit.com]

http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=122598&owner=( International%20Herald%20Tribune)&date=20031225142 337

And yes this guy is still alive 8)

But be assured he won't have that much problems on this Valentines day...

The guy is in Southern Sudan and is muslim...

Any envious geek can ask to telecommute, but broadband mught be hard to get 8)

What is up with this generations geeks?

[It's the tripnaut!]

Don't they know that 10 billion trillion trillion is 10 octillion?

Bugus science at it again

[smartfart]

Can someone please tell me how a huge chunk of carbon (even one that big) can be detected from 50 light-years away? Carbon doesn't give off electromagnetic radiation, and about the only thing they can detect from that far off is going to be a star or other hot object.

Are they claiming they're seeing light transmitted through the thing, from yet-more-distant stars? Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Re:Bugus science at it again

[flewp]

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!"

Re:Bugus science at it again

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

I guess this explains the wealth of the Centauri Republic, eh?

Re:Bugus science at it again

[rknop]

Carbon doesn't give off electromagnetic radiation,

Carbon *does* give off electromagnetic radiation. Exactly what wavelengths depend on the physical situation. But if you have a lot of *anything*, and it's not at absolute zero temperature, it gives off electromagnetic radiation. The white dwarf is probably at several thousand degrees C, and as such gives off a good quantity of electromagnetic radiation.

Lots and lots and lots of white dwarves are known. What's new is the observational evidence of crystalline structure inside.

-Rob

Re:Bugus science at it again

[kcelery]

at 3500 degree C carbon melt. Its hard to distinguish which part is molten graphite or diamond.

someone should check their sources

[nerdguy569]

the majority of Jupiter's mass is protium, Hydrogen with a molar mass of one, its too small to have been a star of any size at any point.
though there is evidence to suport that if Jupiter were to have a higher deuterium (heavy hydrogen) content, it would turn into a star, however this is not happening, so don't worry about having no night anytime soon.

Re:someone should check their sources

[MinutiaeMan]

That's true, the majority of its mass is hydrogen. But you're forgetting just how friggin' massive Jupiter is. Even if only a tiny tiny fraction of a percent were a diamond, it'd still be huge!

Part of Clarke's explanation for this theory (in "2061", actually) explained that Jupiter's high gravity would cause the more massive molecules -- like methane, which Jupiter definitely has in quantity -- would sink through the atmosphere towards the core. And at the core, the intense pressures would separate the carbon from the hydrogen (in the methane), and the hydrogen would waft back up (being of lesser mass), while the carbon would stay in the core.

Think of it as being like a black hole, except without the extreme singularity -- instead of being compressed to a single point, it's being compressed into a diamond. (But it's not just the gravity doing this, it's also the intense atmospheric pressure of all the gasses sitting above the core, too.)

Re:someone should check their sources

[DJ Rubbie]

Actually, it is theorized that Neptune actually have methane that gets compressed into diamonds near its core. With the newly compress diamonds being heavier than its surrounding, it actually falls towards the core, and gets heat up much like a meteror. Since this is a planet-wide (or planet core-wide) process, a significant amount of heat will be produced this way. (Neptune radiates 2.5 times more heat it receives from the sun, IIRC)

Read more:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/carbon-99d.h tml

Bogus link

[SIGBUS]

Gemesys.com belongs to a domain squatter.

* * * * *

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.

Found a referral to whois.fabulous.com.

Domain gemesys.com:
Domain Active Pty. Ltd.
GPO Box 262
Clayfield, QLD 4011 AU

Administrative contact:
Technical contact:
Billing contact:
Domain Active Pty. Ltd.
Domain Hostmaster
hostmaster@domainactive.com
GPO Box 262
Clayfield, QLD 4011 AU
Phone: +61.7 3018 5100
Fax: +61.7 3018 5101

Record dates:
Record created on: 2002-01-04 00:18:03 PST (0)
Record modified on: 2002-11-27 18:32:47 PST (0)
Record expires on: 2005-01-04 PST (0)

Nameservers:
dns01.domainactive.com:
64.15.205.164
dns02.domainactive.com:
64.15.205.191

Re:I hope this is a troll

[flewp]

Hundreds of millions of years ago, who do think was alive on this planet to witness the nova explosion?

Strom Thurman?

DIBS!

[Trikenstein]

I call dibs on it, and I haven't seen anyone else call it!

slight correction...

[da5idnetlimit.com]

Not muslim... He's Animist ...

Pound, Carat...

[keeboo]

Well... I don't know about Carats neither Pounds...

Next time, please, specify using in Kilograms.

Thanks for the sanity.

[Futurepower(R)]

Thanks for bringing some sanity to this discussion. The author of the original story was just trying to get attention, and probably knows nothing about the physics of stars.

in a galaxy far, far away.

[Fubar411]

Anyone who knows diamonds would know they look like a friggin light colored rock. The facets shown in the diagram are a result of careful cutting and polishing. Something that doesn't happen in a galaxy far far away.

Re:in a galaxy far, far away.

[jcgf]

The facets shown in the diagram are a result of careful cutting and polishing. Something that doesn't happen in a galaxy far far away.

Or does it?

Re:Arthur C. Clarke's 2063: Odyssey Three

[Have Blue]

The diamond does appear in 2010, but only as a brief mention when Bowman is exploring Jupiter, a sequence that's not in the movie. At the end of the book, when Jupiter ignites, the diamond core is shattered and ejected into orbit, and it's an large part of the plot of 2061.

Its better then ultra lame mars.

[pablo_max]

This is why we need space mining, not a manned mission to mars. There has been significant progress made in the use of diamond as a semiconductor. If we would break off large bit of this we would be set for ever. Granted...its really really really far so we wouldn't be set, but our great x10^7 grand kids would be. Realistically, Im sure there are several spots right here in the closets asteroid belt that would yield similar but much smaller materials. Though why do something that would further the advancement of man when you could have a one time only manned mission to mars?

Corrected URL

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

http://www.gemesis.com/home.htm

They're selling yellow diamonds. I thought the Russians had a process years ago for adding some metal to the stew that hoovered up the nitrogen that caused the yellow color, producing clear diamonds.

I'm with the Slashdotter who said that even at the same price, he'd prefer to own or give a jewel embodying human science, engineering, ingenuity and cooperation rather than one dug out of the ground in an armed camp. My wife feels the same way. If I had to have a natural diamond I'd wait for a Martian one.

Re:Corrected URL

[Rasta Prefect]

They're selling yellow diamonds. I thought the Russians had a process years ago for adding some metal to the stew that hoovered up the nitrogen that caused the yellow color, producing clear diamonds.

Those guys are using the Russian process for creating the diamonds, but if I recall correctly, the yellow color is the result of intentional doping - Yellow diamonds are actually quite a bit more rare , and thus far more valuable than clear ones.

Re:Corrected URL

[danila]

Both of you are correct. Natural yellow diamonds are more valuable, but manufactured yellow diamonds are cheaper (because of nitrogen). Anyway, this is all very exciting and I am looking forward to reading "The Collapse of the Diamond Monopoly" somewhere around 2010.

Re:Corrected URL

[castroja]

Yellow diamond huh? Sounds familiar...

Kev: It's a diamond
Tommy: The fuckin' thing's brown.
Paul: It's called champagne; it's a trend
Tommy: Oh right, they were calling it "piss", but they weren't moving any units

Lets not forget....

[t_aug]

By the time they polish it, it will probably only be 8 billion trillion trillion carats.

Just think of the economical implications

[gotr00t]

However, don't forget that despite the fact that most of the world is off the gold standard, gold is still used to stabilize the currency. Out of all the things that money could be backed by, a precious mineral like gold is the most stable because the amount in the world is fixed.

If you introduce so much gold into the world that its as abundant as lead, then there would need to be a new rare mineral to back currency. If this was to happen, every currency would be worthless, and so would gold. It would be just like the massive inflation Germany suffered in the 1920's... imagine pushing cartloads of gold to buy one loaf of bread.

Re:Just think of the economical implications

[Jerf]

The end of the economy would not come if gold was suddenly worthless. We'd just have to fully shift off of the gold standard, which is probably inevitable.

If nanotechnology succeeds (and I'm talking weak nanotechnology, not even self-replication, so this seems pretty likely) a lot of materials are likely to become worth less. Sooner or later, the world economy is going to become stabalized around energy, which there is a finite amount available at any time. It's a little less stable but will remain a limiting factor for the forseeable future.

Note this has been explored already in some sci-fi; for instance, the Science Fiction game Alpha Centuari expressed money in terms of "energy credits". (Yes, it's a game, but it is also a legitimate work of Science Fiction, and I mean that in the highest sense as a hard-core sci-fi fan.) One could probably argue that to some extent it's already happened.

(One could also imagine stabalizing on information, but that's a little too fungible to provide a foundation, and energy is, in the final analysis, more fundamental; information is really organized energy and matter. In fact, matter is nothing more then organized energy and it is plausible that someday we will realize that literally in an economic sense, although direct matter-to-energy conversion seems unlikely. (Not quite as unlikely as FTL but still seemingly increasingly unlikely.))

Re:Just think of the economical implications

[Firehawk]

Although there are still a few irrelevant currencies that still do, most of the world simply allows currency markets to determine the value of currencies (and *shock horror* the economy hasn't collapsed).


Not yet, anyway. However, if you follow the trail of collapsed national currencies starting in the 1970s (when the US dollar went off the gold standard), it's been happening at an ever faster rate. The Latin American countries, the South American countries, the Asian financial crisis ...

Coming to a theathre near you soon - the US Dollar financial crisis ...

No

[brucmack]

Nobody would bother going to space for diamonds, because there are already too many of them down here. We're just supposed to believe that there aren't many so that we can pay a higher price for them.

Re:No

[DigiShaman]

There might be an industrial application for such a diamond. For example, if you hollow out one of these gigantic diamonds, i'm sure it would make for a nice single piece hull of spaceship. Or better yet, a probe for exploring the deepest depths of stars and gas giants without fear of implosion.

Of course, trying to chip at such a diamond would be a bitch.

Re:No

[brucmack]

That is an interesting idea, yeah... but definitely our technology would have to greatly improve to be able to make the diamond a certain shape like that, probably to the extent that it wouldn't be worth it to do it in the first place. If we had the technology to cut a single-piece spacecraft hull out of a diamond, we'd probably have something else we could use that'd be better.

20$ gold coin?

[medelliadegray]

yea, if gold were that prevalent--to use in wiring, and in bullets, i dont think a coin valued at 20$ would be small enough for even california's governor to carry it.

Astronuts...

[slittle]

They'd be De Beernuts, no?

Vernor Vinge, Prophet

[cookie_cutter]

This reminds me of Hugo Award winning Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. In it, a group of space travellers enter a solar system with bewildering astronomical phenomena, one of which was the lack of any asteroids except for mile wide diamonds.

URL correction

[Animats]

Gemesis URL (corrected)

I'm sorry, but I have to

[Gyl]

I would like to point out that pounds is not an appropriate unit of measure here. We know what it means, but pounds is a unit of force of gravity. The fact that an object experiences the same gravity anywhere on earth (essentially) causes us to often use pounds as a unit of mass, which it is not. Properly, this large diamond should be some number of kilograms, or the imperial equivalent. Or to make the numbers more understandable, measure it in Earth masses.

calculations show the diamond to be 2.27x10^30 kg the sun is about 1.99x10^30 kg for comparison

Forever?

[rknop]

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

That is, unless the proton is unstable.

-Rob

In other news...

[Savatte]

Kobe Bryant's wife just got really pissed at him again.

Debeers! Da Bears!

[firstadopter.com]

DeBeers probably launching rockets as we speak to mine that diamond.

Cameron? (was Re:Formation)

[Zathras11]

Maybe this is the one that they took out of
Cameron's ass in the movie Ferris Buehler's Day
Off... ;^)

"Pardon my french, but Cameron is so tight that if
you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks
you'd have a diamond." -- Ferris Buehler's Day Off

Too Late!

[Master of Transhuman]

Liz Taylor just bought it.

Or was that Liz Hurley?

Can't keep my Lizzies straight anymore.

now only if I can figure out

[Sivaram_Velauthapill]

Now only if I can figure out how to get there... :)

Of course, if someone discovers that much diamond, the price will plummet and it won't be worth that much (as a matter of fact, diamond companies artificially limit the quantity).

Sivaram Velauthapillai

"Clean" diamonds

[Edward_M]

If I had to have a natural diamond I'd wait for a Martian one.

Or you could buy Canadian diamonds.

Isn't it the Star of India?

[xray_dude]

Isn't the dimond they mention as the Star of Africa actuall the Star of India? I could be wrong, maybe somebody knows. -xray

forget my last comment

[xray_dude]

Sorry about that, it is the Star of Africa according to the WWW :) -xray

How big is this white dwarf?

[GPS Pilot]

The Washington Post's story on this says, "this white dwarf has a diameter of 2,500 miles."

But it also says, "Most known white dwarves are smaller than the sun, but BPM 37093 is slightly larger and is the most massive known dwarf."

Both statements cannot be true! If it's larger than the sun, its diameter is certainly not 2,500 miles.

Really Buy It

[ElliotLee]

They sell stars, or at least the ownership, claim, or naming of them. It's a symbolic thing to claim a star, and that specific star is "yours" and only yours forever. Why not do the same with this overgrown diamond?

10 billion trillion trillion?

[ShonFerg]

Wouldn't it be easier just to say one quattuortrigintillion? ^_^

Re:10 billion trillion trillion?

[ShonFerg]

Eh, misread the chart ^_^; 10 decillion :x

--Stupid

Bogus spell-check at it again

[j_w_d]

RTA. The object is a white dwarf. It is luminous; so yes, they are seeing light from 50 light years. The conclusion that the object has a crystalline core though has nothing directly to do with spectral data. So again, RTA.

And the next deBeers commercial

[p-adically yours]

featuring the image of the diamond-cored planet

Give your special someone that gift that lasts until time/space implodes...

Re:Agreed.

[ClubStew]

It's funny and sad, really, when the hardest rock known in existence is to symbolize the fleeting concept of marriage. With a divorce rate over 50% (at least here in the US), a rock is hardly a symbol.

Living on it?

[sckeener]

When asked to estimate the value of the cosmic jewel, Ronald Winston, CEO of Harry Winston Inc., indicated that such a large diamond probably would depress the value of the market, stating, "Who knows? It may be a self-deflating prophecy because there is so much of it." He added, "It is definitely too big to wear!"

But what about living on it?

Get the rock

[Doc Ruby]

OK, Slashdotters, you've got at most 10 years to land on this space diamond, affix a tiny gold ring, and gift a wife with her diamond anniversary present, commemorating 60 years of marriage. Although perhaps finding a mate in the next 10 years is a tougher challenge. If you get the right girl, though, she might be willing to stay hitched through the century-long roundtrip before she can show it off to her girlfriends. OTOH, after 10 years of marriage to you, she might prefer to go get it herself, in the most extreme "separation" agreement ever. Gentlemen, start your engines!

That's not that big

[Scroatzilla]

I dated girls in college that could wear that in a ring and still make it look small. ;)

New Jewelry

[Embedded Geek]

Ever try to sell your diamond encrusted jewelry?

There's another route, one that allows you to avoid supporting both the cartel and the (possibly unsavory) people at the source: recycle.

Years ago my mother inherited two diamond rings from my grandmother (her mother-in-law), neither of which was in a style she liked. Rather than letting the rings gather dust or selling them, she found a jeweler who reset both sets of diamonds into a setting she prefered (after recieving my father's blessing to avoid sentiment issues). The jeweler may or may not have melted down the gold for the new setting, too, but I'm not sure. The end result: Grandma's dimonds (with all associated sentimental value) in Mom's ring. Eventually, I wound up using that ring when I proposed to my wife.

In this day and age of mall jewelry stores, it might be tough to find a place that actually makes the stuff (the guy my Mom used was a retired jeweler we knew with decades of experience who was literally working out of his garage as a hobby). If you find a place you trust (i.e. has all the proper references, etc), though, there are catalogs with blank settings that you can use to insert the stones you already own and perhaps add a few more for color (emerald, saphire, etc.). That is what my wife and I did with her wedding ring.

Realistically, you won't save that much money with the labor costs will offset a lot of the value of the recycled stones. You will wind up with an absolutely unique piece for your beloved, one that may have extra sentimental value because of the origin of the stones.