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Massive Diamond Found Orbiting Pulsar
HairyNevus writes "A recent survey of pulsars has revealed a fascinating discovery of a millisecond pulsar in system PSR J17191438 that has stripped a nearby white dwarf star down to its very core. Although no longer visible, is still has the mass of Jupiter. The remaining core rotates its neutron star companion with a period of just under 2 hours, indicating extremely close proximity. Given this distance, scientists have calculated that the substance of the core must be very compact, and, without building up the point, they conclude it is made of diamond. One thing I found misleading about the article is that it refers to the core as having 'the size of Jupiter' and 'the mass of Jupiter.' Given their different densities (diamond vs. mostly helium), it would seem clear that their size (i.e. volume) differs."
One thing I found misleading about the article is that it refers to the core as having 'the size of Jupiter' and 'the mass of Jupiter.'
Here's the correct Science Journal link and here is a better press release from the Max Planck Institute that clarifies:
For the newly discovered pulsar, known as PSR J1719-1438, the astronomers noticed that the arrival times of the pulses were systematically modulated and concluded that this is due to the gravitational pull of a small orbiting companion, a planet. These modulations can tell astronomers several more things about the companion. First, it orbits the pulsar in just two hours and ten minutes, and the distance between the two objects is 600,000 km - a little bit less than the radius of our Sun. Second, the companion is so close to the pulsar that if its diameter was any larger than 60,000 km (less than half the diameter of Jupiter) it would be ripped apart by the gravity of the pulsar.
So it appears that the article saying "size equivalent to Jupiter" (volume?) is wrong if the Max Planck Institute is correct in saying that its diameter has to be less than half the diameter of Jupiter.
My work here is dung.
Now my wife will want it
Time for a celebration, I'll get De Beers in
Regardless of what the De Beers group wants you to think, diamonds are not that rare. Carbon is the most common element around.
Still, its kinda nifty to see such a large chunk of the stuff.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
These planets are a diamond dozen.
How much would a diamond the size of Jupiter be worth? Obviously if you could get it to earth somehow then diamond would be the most abundant material we have so it would be worthless but at todays prices I wonder how much it would be worth.
Jupiter is 90% Hydrogen.
Mostly in a metallic form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
she'll want it mounted on her anniversary ring
genious.
Look again, the planets are now diamonds.
We've just got to name the pulsar "Lucy" now.
Here's the Jodrell Bank / University of Manchester press release: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2011/DiamondPlanet/
My girlfriend wants to know! ;^)
You all know women, and their obsession with size! ;^) Of Diamonds of course! What did you think I meant? ;^)
Pity I won't be around to see it, but can't have everything.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
That the missus doesn't read this article. Otherwise I know what she'll want for her birthday.
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high,
A freaking diamond in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle... wait. What now?
Wow.
I called dibs. This planet is now mine. If you want a piece of it. You have to pay me. I called dibs first. Remember it. And you better believe it.
'tis but a scratch.
The phase diagram of carbon at extreme temperature and pressure is pretty much unknown. We don't even have any really good studies of liquid carbon. So it's entirely possible the core of such a white dwarf would be made of some other phase of carbon. See, for example, this figure of the carbon phase diagram from density functional theory, showing that over a terapascal, diamond is unstable. Stuff is not the same at the core of a star (even a small one) as in your backyard.
little star...
like a stripped nearby white dwarf
in the sky...
This isn't diamond in any sense that we usualy think of it. Yes, it's carbon atoms, and yes, they're "crystallized", but the core of a white dwarf is composed mostly of electron-degnerate matter where all of the electrons have been disassociated from their parent atoms and all the nuclei clump together, floating in a sea of electrons. This stuff has a density of roughly 1000 kilograms (2,200 lbs) per cubic centimeter. I imagine it would *catastrophically* decompress if you could teleport a chunk of it back to earth. It's not diamond.
We have that shit here too.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
2010: Odyssey Two, written in the early 1980s, featured Jupiter having a diamond core.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
The first thought that jumps into my mind is the obligatory "ca-ching" factor of hypothetically attempting to harvest/sell something like this. ....... but then I realized it was hundreds of times the size of Earth, and would just end up flooding the market. You'd eventually be able to buy real diamonds out of the gumball machines at WalMart,
It reminds me of an old Sega-CD game called Dungeon Explorer where you can wish for great wealth at the end and you just get stuck on a planet sized diamond. (Sort of a "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
PSR J1719-1438 went to Jared.
You know when you've been playing too much Minecraft when you try to calculate how many pickaxes it would take to mine it, and how big of a diamond block castle you could construct with it.
do() || do_not();
it should have been pretty easy to find, after all, a diamond that large should be all sparkly.
The remaining core rotates its neutron star companion with a period of just under 2 hours
That's odd.
By the way, does it orbit the star, too?
Looks tiny from here.
Husband didn't go to Jared...
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
I call dibs on it. It's mine. As soon as someone finds a way to get there, I'll let them have half the diamond they can carry back.
This pulsar is now diamonds!
I thought I had heard enough about how other people had bigger diamond stone on their finger now.
This will be the new standard. You bought me this tiny itty bitty rock and someone else has one
the size of Jupiter. I want one that is at least a quarter of that.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
So all those times I've said to girls: "I am giving you that star over there, shining in the sky as a gift", I was actually giving them the biggest diamonds of all times. They should have been thanking me for that, not running away.
You can't handle the truth.
Just one of Lucy's Diamonds in the sky.
Kind regards
Slashdotgirl
PS Apologies to Lennon and McCartney
The more I know, the less I know
If this country were run by women, NASA would be well funded through this discovery... or... it's the lair of a James Bond villain.. I don't care which you choose.
Better watch out for extonic sunlight when lowering the leisure palace from orbit. Oh, and it is probably inhabited by the odd unnamed voice-stealing malevolent entity. Looks like Doctor Who was right all along.
Let me dust of the old astronomy degree here...
Major problems:
The science that "inspired" this article is probably fine. But, the article is crap.
I read this whole thread waiting for someone to refer to the mountain-sized blocks of diamond in A Deepness In The Sky and you all fucking let me down.
It has been hypothesized (by Anders Sandberg and others) that an advanced intelligence might convert a Jupiter sized mass into one large diamond computational substrate - a "Jupiter brain." Now this object is rather larger than Sandberg predicts :
"...a compact diamond structure would have a maximum radius on the order of 9760 km, somewhat larger than the Earth. Having the density doubles the possible radius and quadruples the mass, which suggests a trade-off between internal delays and computing power"
but this super-brain could presumably power itself from the nearby neutron star (thereby solving another problem mentioned by Sandberg), and surely could figure out some means of making the larger structure stable, maybe by rotation.
So, if this object was a "Jupiter brain," how could we tell from here ?
Maybe that Middle Earth elf can print one out on his 1300$ cardboard box with surplus printer parts in it? It's a replicator after all.
"We're delivering a package to the diamond planet PSRJ17!" That's a pretty good Futurama episode premise if I ever saw one!
Avoid the Xtonic radiation (from the pulsar I presume)
Funny how the craziest things in Sci-Fi can turn out to be real.
Refer to the planet Midnight from the Dr. Who series.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Midnight
There were also diamond icebergs in Arthur C Clarkes 2061. Admittedly, a pretty mediocre book, both compared to 2001 and 2010 and to ADitS. And lets not forget F. Scott Fitzgeralds A diamond as big as the Ritz...
Next, scientists will discover an asteroid made of unobtanium
...they'll have to be measured in pumpkins.
They found Gallifrey or what left of it.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Midnight They already know!
...must have gotten an order in again. I wonder when we find the golden planet, with some nice fjords, of course.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Update - after further examination it has been revealed that the body in question is in fact a giant cubic zirconia.
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
Yeah, yeah, diamonds aren't rare and we can even build them to whatever size in the lab.
But, what's a rock, that's not a diamond, that a girl's likely to be proud of (i.e. it looks pretty and is as expensive).
I know you can get rubies and what have you in any size, but they don't have the same marketing power. What I'm thinking of is a rock/mineral that's rare and primarily only known about by geologists.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
A reason for greedy corporations to invent faster than light space travel for us! Now we're getting somewhere.
..which I'm trying to remember the title of. It played off on the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky (with Diamonds).
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
My girlfriend asked me a diamon ring, I hope this news never reaches her, this news will render my arguments invalid...
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Nuff said.
What -is- the size of jupiter? The observed size is an artifact of the high albedo of the atmosphere.
"No good deed goes unpunished"
Oil dammit! Not diamond, oil!
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Look at the supernova; now at the white dwarf; back to the pulsar; magnetic fields; back to the white dwarf. Is it condensing? What's the period of the pulsar? Look again. The star is now diamonds.
The phase diagram of carbon at extreme temperature and pressure is pretty much unknown. We don't even have any really good studies of liquid carbon. So it's entirely possible the core of such a white dwarf would be made of some other phase of carbon. See, for example, this figure of the carbon phase diagram from density functional theory, showing that over a terapascal, diamond is unstable. Stuff is not the same at the core of a star (even a small one) as in your backyard.
The phase diagram of carbon at extreme temperature and pressure is pretty much unknown. We don't even have any really good studies of liquid carbon. So it's entirely possible the core of such a white dwarf would be made of some other phase of carbon. See, for example, this figure of the carbon phase diagram from density functional theory, showing that over a terapascal, diamond is unstable. Stuff is not the same at the core of a star (even a small one) as in your backyard.
we can see all the ultravoilet rays which will come from it
In the novel 2010 by Arthur C. Clarke (the follow up to 2001), Jupiter is revealed to have a diamond the size of the earth at its core.