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Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Diamond

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-setting dept.

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.

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DeBeers by nschubach · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nah, they are just preparing to send a ship to claim it so they can send millions of underpaid miners to chip off some more diamonds to throw away to keep the price artificially high.

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    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  2. Units by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    3000 degrees Kelvin

    Isn't it supposed to just be "3000 Kelvin"?

  3. Re:DeBeers by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're pissed that we found the place where they dump the surplus so they could claim that diamonds were rare.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.