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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.

68 of 112 comments (clear)

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

    Lucy is here. I repeat, Lucy is here.

    1. Re:Clarke says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Kayne may buy it for Kim to wear to go with her Earth-sized butt.

    2. Re:Clarke says... by Keyboard+Rage · · Score: 1

      I for one welcome our new Monolithic Overlords.

  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.
    1. Re:DeBeers by mshaver · · Score: 1

      They already have their lawyers working on claiming all mining rights.

    2. 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.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    3. Re:DeBeers by zlives · · Score: 1

      why would they be pissed? this is their longterm storage facility for pricing reasons!!

    4. 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.
    5. Re:DeBeers by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      I suspect this is where they they have been dumping those diamonds.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  4. Just don't tell De Beers by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Considering that the high price of diamonds is a combination of the De Beers monopoly together with their massive PR campaigns to a) make people use diamonds as formal symbols of affection and b) to make people unwilling to sell them second-hand once they've been owned, they should be worried. On the other hand, this is 900 light years away, so maybe they'll just lobby against any research into FTL travel.

    1. 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!

    2. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      900 light years? Then for sure don't tell them about the one "only" 40 LY away.

    3. 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.

    4. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      Dwarf? Diamond?

      "Boss! De Beers!"

    5. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by OzPeter · · Score: 2

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

      Is your girlfriend upset that you didn't call the International Star registry and get a star named after her (written in book form in the library of congress) like all of her girlfriends did? Was she upset that you didn't care that much for her?

      Well now is your chance to redeem yourself. Don't just name any old star after your girlfriend, get a star sized diamond named after her! If diamonds are a girls best friend, then after doing this you'll never have to "[sudo] make me a sandwich" again, as she'll be thanking you for the rest of her life (well .. maybe until her battery runs down). And all of her friends boyfriends will look up to you like "you da man, dawg!!!!"

      Call now .. there's only a limited supply (of paper certificates that we bought in bulk)

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    6. Re:Just don't tell De Beers by Talderas · · Score: 1

      The top five things women judge each other on when they first meet.

      #5 - Their boobs.
      #4 - Their ring.
      #3 - Their weight.
      #2 - Their purse.
      #1 - Their hair.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  5. ...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.
    1. Re:...like a diamond in the sky? by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      That is wonderful. Thank you.

    2. Re:...like a diamond in the sky? by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

      Thank you. My faith in humanity had been shatnered, but now I feel sufficiently complemented again.

  6. Re:I'll buy it if the seller pays for shipping by xuchilpaba · · Score: 1

    can you send the amount to my paypal account?

  7. Units by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    3000 degrees Kelvin

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

    1. Re:Units by geekoid · · Score: 2

      Nope.
      It's suppose to be 3000 degrees from Kevin

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Units by glwtta · · Score: 2

      According to WolframAlpha:

      1.903 x 10^28

      http://www.wolframalpha.com/in...

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    3. Re:Units by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      3000 degrees Kelvin

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

      Does it really matter?

      It does if you want to employ SI-unit conventions correctly.

      In fact, the convention is to use kelvin (lower-case k) for the name of the unit, and K (upper case) for the abbreviation.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    4. Re:Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you want to apply SI correctly then 'K' is not an abbreviation, it's a unit symbol. Abbreviations are a language construct (and depend on the language), symbols are those things you use in mathematics.

      So, if you ever see "kph", remember it has very little to do with SI.

    5. Re:Units by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Good point. Thanks.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  8. Greenbank telescope may be defunded by FeriteCore · · Score: 1

    From the article:

    Kaplan and his colleagues found this stellar gem using the National Radio Astronomy Observatoryâ(TM)s (NRAO) Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), as well as other observatories.

    From wikipedia:

    The National Science Foundation (NSF) Astronomy Portfolio Review committee chaired by Daniel Eisenstein of Harvard University recommended in August 2012 that the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope should be defunded over a five year period.[9] Further information on this divestiture can be found on the AUI webpage and at www.savethegbt.org.

    In the fiscal year 2014 budget, the US Congress did not recommend divesting the Green Bank Telescope. The Telescope is looking for partners to help fund its $10 million annual operating costs.

  9. DIAMONDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How do they go from crystalized carbonmonoxide to a diamond? The diamond crystal lattice is exceptionally strong and only atoms of nitrogen, boron and hydrogen can be introduced into diamond during the growth at significant concentrations (up to atomic percents).
    If it's "mostly" oxygen and carbon it's not a diamond. That's simple chemistry.

    1. Re:DIAMONDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      So it is ... dry ice?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:DIAMONDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY by ddt · · Score: 2

      If it's been gradually cooling for billions of years, I imagine that might create annealing-like conditions where the oxygen and carbon separate with the heavier solid oxygen at the core and a diamond lattice outside. So maybe it's diamond shell with a refreshing solid oxygen center?

    3. Re:DIAMONDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY by Required+Snark · · Score: 4, Informative
      Warning: ACTUAL PHYSICS, not typical Slashdot half-assed speculation.

      This class of white dwarf stars are a mixture of primarily oxygen and carbon. Depending on the mass the amount of carbon and oxygen are roughly the same, but sometimes there is more oxygen. As the star cools it goes through a phase transition where the core becomes crystallized. This releases heat through two mechanisms: heat of crystallization and the release of gravothermal energy.

      The inner crystallized section is enhanced in oxygen. The outer fluid mantel is enriched in carbon. Calling this a diamond is simply wrong. Perhaps at some point in the distant future one of these will cool and part of it will become a form of crystal carbon, but considering that the cooling time without mantle carbon crystallization is on the order of 10 Gigayears, it is not likely this has happened yet considering that the universe is around 13.6 gigayears old.

      http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/486/1/413/fulltext/34903.text.html

      The Cooling of CO White Dwarfs: Influence of the Internal Chemical Distribution

      White dwarfs are the remnants of stars of low and intermediate masses on the main sequence. Since they have exhausted all of their nuclear fuel, their evolution is just a gravothermal process. The release of energy only depends on the detailed internal structure and chemical composition and on the properties of the envelope equation of state and opacity; its consequences on the cooling curve (i.e., the luminosity vs. time relationship) depend on the luminosity at which this energy is released.

      The internal chemical profile depends on the rate of the 12C(, )16O reaction as well as on the treatment of convection. High reaction rates produce white dwarfs with oxygen-rich cores surrounded by carbon-rich mantles. This reduces the available gravothermal energy and decreases the lifetime of white dwarfs.

      In this paper we compute detailed evolutionary models providing chemical profiles for white dwarfs having progenitors in the mass range from 1.0 to 7 M, and we examine the influence of such profiles in the cooling process. The influence of the process of separation of carbon and oxygen during crystallization is decreased as a consequence of the initial stratification, but it is still important and cannot be neglected. As an example, the best fit to the luminosity functions of Liebert et al. and Oswalt et al. gives an age of the disk of 9.3 and 11.0 Gyr, respectively, when this effect is taken into account, and only 8.3 and 10.0 Gyr when it is neglected.

      --
      Why is Snark Required?
    4. Re:DIAMONDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY by ygslash · · Score: 1

      Warning: ACTUAL PHYSICS, not typical Slashdot half-assed speculation...

      Calling this a diamond is simply wrong. Perhaps at some point in the distant future one of these will cool and part of it will become a form of crystal carbon, but considering that the cooling time without mantle carbon crystallization is on the order of 10 Gigayears, it is not likely this has happened yet considering that the universe is around 13.6 gigayears old...

      OP here. Not claiming to know much about this; I just pointed out the NRAO announcement. But I assume that NRAO does have people that know something about the physics here.

      They are not saying that the white dwarf is 3000 K - they would have detected it directly then. They are saying that it must be cooler than that, perhaps much cooler. Thus, they are speculating that this is an extremely old object, and that it may indeed have cooled enough to reach temperatures at which there would be carbon crystallization.

  10. Not a diamond, and not like a diamond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Diamonds are almost entirely carbon, where as this has a significant portion of oxygen in it, so this wouldn't actually form a diamond structure. This sort of headline bait is rather annoying.

    1. Re:Not a diamond, and not like a diamond by arth1 · · Score: 1

      True. This would be amorphous carbonia, which is basically a crystalline form of carbon dioxide under high pressure. It's no more diamond than what you exhale.

    2. Re:Not a diamond, and not like a diamond by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Diamonds are almost entirely carbon, where as this has a significant portion of oxygen in it, so this wouldn't actually form a diamond structure. This sort of headline bait is rather annoying.

      So... diamondillium or diamondium?

  11. Re:Wat by NoKaOi · · Score: 1

    FTA:

    Astronomers believe that such a cool, collapsed star would be largely crystallized carbon, not unlike a diamond.

    But I'm sure you know more about it than these folks with PhDs in astronomy.

  12. Hey it's the planet by NotSoHeavyD3 · · Score: 1

    from the Sega CD version of Dungeon Explorer .(There's an obscure reference.)

    --
    Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
    1. Re:Hey it's the planet by DudemanX · · Score: 1

      Great game. Probably still my favorite Gauntlet clone. It was for TurboGraphix16 though and not any Sega system.

      Dungeon Explorer is on Wii Virtual Console.

  13. Pawn or sell? by Snotnose · · Score: 2

    Lemme call a buddy of mine to see what he can tell me about this.

  14. Units by vanyel · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many carats that is...

  15. If so, my question is by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Is it just one diamond, or a pile of diamonds? If a pile, how [ir]regular?

    I mean, in theory. I know we haven't been there.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. If she's not going to live forever, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why buy her a diamond?

    1. Re:If she's not going to live forever, by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Why buy her a diamond?

      There are only 2 reasons to buy diamonds - to cut hard stuff and to make a crazy laser weapon.

    2. Re:If she's not going to live forever, by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Or, to convince the kind of person stupid enough to think a diamond is important to enter a relationship with you.

  17. Re:I'll buy it if the seller pays for shipping by confused+one · · Score: 2

    How do you plan to handle delivery? An Earth sized chunk of carbon might require delicate handling as it is drop shipped on your home. BTW, a signature will be required.

  18. Re:let me be the first to say.... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    You can't call dibs in a bidding war!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  19. That's some serious bling by robbiedo · · Score: 1

    Hoper Kanye doesn't see this.

  20. Chilly 3000K? by Chas · · Score: 1

    Sure, maybe by stellar object standards, that's quite cool.

    But an object that's rocking out at nearly 5000F isn't something I'd classify as "chilly".

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:Chilly 3000K? by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

      whooosh?

  21. In other news... by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    De Beers to launch deep space rocket. Estimated cost? Two months salary.

  22. And she still didn't give me a BJ... by Snufu · · Score: 1

    Boeing Jet, in return. I always wanted one of those.

  23. Any uses for a big diamond? by dcooper_db9 · · Score: 1

    Assuming some day in the distant future humans could reach deep into space, could a really big diamond serve any functional purpose?

    --
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  24. Gravity? by bejiitas_wrath · · Score: 1

    How much of a gravitational pull would there be on this object? Could you approach it closely or would that be a bad idea?

    --
    liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
    1. Re:Gravity? by meglon · · Score: 1
      It's a white dwarf.

      and the companion a mass 1.05 times that of the Sun.

      It's gravitational pull, not including the pulsar's, would be almost the same as our suns.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    2. Re:Gravity? by amaurea · · Score: 1

      But since its much smaller, the surface gravity would be much greater (you can go deeper into its gravitational well before you reach its surface). The sun has a surface acceleration of 275 m/s^2, or about 28 g. This white dwarf would have a surface acceleration of 3.33 Mm/s^2, or 3.3e5 g, more than ten thousand times higher. Attempt no landings there.

    3. Re:Gravity? by meglon · · Score: 1

      Yes, Amaurea right above your post laid that out pretty well, as do you.... but the OP didn't specify surface gravity. You would feel roughly the same effects (gravitationally) from it as you would from our sun at the same distance from center of mass; you'd simply be able to get much closer to center of mass on a white dwarf, baring being fried from the radiation output.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  25. Quartz anyone? by __aanbvm4272 · · Score: 1

    May the Quartz be with you. Really It has to be one of the most common minerals on earth. It just looks like a diamond.

  26. Re:Wat by __aanbvm4272 · · Score: 1

    not unlike a diamond. There you see it's just "not unlike one" Quartz.

  27. Thing of the curse on that baby! by MouseTheLuckyDog · · Score: 1

    After all all big diamonds have curses on them!

  28. Actually they released a Sega-CD version by NotSoHeavyD3 · · Score: 1

    It was one of a couple of TG-16 games they did on the Sega-CD. Funny thing was even though Lords of Thunder was basically the same game as the Duo-CD version the Sega-CD version of Dungeon Explorer was a totally new game.

    --
    Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
  29. Re:I'll buy it if the seller pays for shipping by dreamchaser · · Score: 2

    Just imagine the shipping costs, seeing as the density of a white dwarf is 109 kg/m3, about 200,000 times that of the Earth!

    Make sure you insure the package too.

  30. Re:Wat by ygslash · · Score: 1

    They didn't say it's 3000K. They said it's not 3000K, because otherwise they would have detected it directly. It's cooler than 3000K, perhaps much cooler.

  31. One warning... by TerokNor · · Score: 1

    Ahh, taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight? What could possibly go wrong?

  32. dibs by idanity · · Score: 1

    i call dibs

    --
    happy trials
  33. Re:Kelvin by Rod.Dorman · · Score: 1

    not "degrees Kelvin"

    No, not since 1968 when it was renamed.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

  34. Re:Wat by i.kazmi · · Score: 1

    And it's a well known fact that when a conservative needs a brain...oh wait, never mind, conservatives never need brain surgeries

  35. Re:I'll buy it if the seller pays for shipping by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
    109 kg per cubic metre? One tenth the density of water?

    I think Bugs Bunny must have been round your post. Eating all the carets.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"