Slashdot Mirror


Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Diamond

ygslash (893445) writes Astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory announced that they have discovered what appears to be the coolest white dwarf ever detected. The white dwarf is formerly a star similar to our own sun which, after expending all of its fuel, has cooled to less than a chilly 3000 degrees Kelvin and contracted to a size approximately the same as Earth. A white dwarf is composed mostly of carbon and oxygen, and the astronomers believe that at that temperature it would be mostly crystallized, forming something like a huge diamond.

6 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Clarke says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lucy is here. I repeat, Lucy is here.

  2. I discovered an upside down diamond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I discovered an upside down diamond in your moms pants. It wasn't Earth sized but your mom sure was! She made me look like a white dwarf!

  3. DeBeers by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is really pissed

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  4. ...like a diamond in the sky? by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scintillate, Scintillate, Diminutive Stellar Orb,

    How inexplicable to me it seems the stupendous problem of your existence.

    Elevated at such an immeasurable distance in an apparently perpendicular direction from this terrestrial planet which we occupy,

    Resembling in thy dazzling and unapproachable effulgence, a gem of purest carbon set solitaire in a university of space.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  5. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is your relationship cold, shriveled and almost unimaginably distant? Astronomical diamonds may be for you!

    Is your relationship worth (letting some expendable poor person handle the) dying for? Good, honest, terrestrial diamonds will express the depth of your affection, even as they increase the depth of our giant pit-mines!

  6. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Funny

    De Beers? I don't care if you tell them, but whatever you do, don't tell my girlfriend.