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Diamond star thrills astronomers

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Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
User ID: 131547
1/23/2007 5:09 PM
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Diamond star thrills astronomers

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Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.

The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy" after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Twinkle twinkle

"You would need a jeweller's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond," says astronomer Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 546-carat Golden Jubilee which was cut from a stone brought out of the Premier mine in South Africa.

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

For more than four decades, astronomers have thought that the interiors of white dwarfs crystallised, but obtaining direct evidence became possible only recently.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

"By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

"We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of the solar system.

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

[link to news.bbc.co.uk]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 179033
1/23/2007 6:31 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
for sure they will try to mine that one

Thomas Dolby 5.5
User ID: 37525
1/23/2007 6:33 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
for sure they will try to mine that one Quoting: Anonymous Coward 179033 I've heard Ivana Trump wants a piece of it... "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" "Don't worry, everything is going to be Ok"

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 153788
1/23/2007 7:09 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
Slightly off subject, but check out this site that sells raw uncut diamond crystals... cool gallery of pics. [link to www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com]

Thanatos
User ID: 159000
1/23/2007 7:18 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
I had a hard time believing this is real, but it gets the White Rabbit stamp of approval as real science that just happens to sound crazy. Rarrgh!

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 623339
7/3/2009 11:29 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
Wow this is kind of cool, at the end of a stars road it becomes crystal

GenerationX
User ID: 709154
7/3/2009 11:31 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
Anyone got a pic of this?

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 606636
7/3/2009 11:39 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
Damnit, don't tell my wife!

Cosmogenesis21122012
User ID: 715604
7/3/2009 11:41 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
pic this i mean please a Pic.... lol Time is Art WE ARE ONE https://twitter.com /cosmogenesis777 www.cosmogenesis21122012.blogspot.com ONENESS [link to profile.myspace.com]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 533031
7/3/2009 11:42 PM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
And it also shows that other than the value we place on them, diamonds really are just another form of carbon. Yeah, they sparkle and are hard, but I still don't understand why people are willing to pay so much money for them.

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 717838
7/4/2009 3:46 AM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
And it also shows that other than the value we place on them, diamonds really are just another form of carbon. Yeah, they sparkle and are hard, but I still don't understand why people are willing to pay so much money for them. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 533031 [link to en.wikipedia.org]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 717056
7/4/2009 4:12 AM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote

hardboiledheretic
User ID: 716940
7/4/2009 4:15 AM

Re: Diamond star thrills astronomers	Quote
Yeah I remember this story and pic. Absolute fairyland space. h

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