10 billion trillion trillion carat diamond star found

dod

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm

Diamond star thrills astronomers

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, 1,500 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."

Lucy in the sky

"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 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a measly 3,100-carat gem.

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 our Solar System.

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

Trine

Zombie thread revival!

But for whatever reason this story is the most popular story on the BBC News site today (probably a site error, it seems to happen the odd time).

I didn't read about this first time though so found it really interesting. We pay dearly both financially and in terms of human life for mere grams of valuable metals such as diamonds, and to think there are whole planets out there made of the stuff.

We're probably a long long way off being able to mine other planets, but I imagine technology-wise we already possess the ability to send an automated craft to a planet and return with a sizable cargo. It's just not economically viable with the distance, cost of fuel and amount that could be returned. Massive solar powered space trawlers capable of mining from low orbit?

But it's interesting to think of how different our economy will be in the future when materials deemed rare on earth will be found in abundance elsewhere. A new gold rush to a distant planet maybe?

Maybe that's exactly what we need to kick space exploration into the next age, I'm sure if oil was found on a nearby planet we'd have a means to mine it within a decade.

The Hill Billy

Trine wrote: »

I'm sure if oil was found on a nearby planet we'd have a means to mine it within a decade.

[off_topic]We'd also find life there too. Well, the Yanks would need to declare war on someone to get at the oil. [/off_topic]

rainyrun

I find it fasinating that it makes a ringing noise!! and generates waves across the universe I had not heard about this before.. great thread!

shanered

Never be able to cut any of it, nothing exists here that would be able to cut it I doubt. Unless there happens to be some nice lil chunks ready for stealing...hehe
But thats for another millenia

Batsy

rainyrun wrote: »

I find it fasinating that it makes a ringing noise!! and generates waves across the universe I had not heard about this before.. great thread!

There is no sound in space. Space is a vacuum and therefore no sounds can occur within it.

The Hill Billy

It depends on what you mean by 'sound'. We cannot hear radio waves for example, but these can easily be converted to sounds that the we can interpret.

Batsy

The Hill Billy wrote: »

It depends on what you mean by 'sound'. We cannot hear radio waves for example, but these can easily be converted to sounds that the we can interpret.

I mean normal sound. The type of sound that is generated by vibrating air.

The Hill Billy

You are right of course to say that sound does not travel in a vacuum, however, it does not necessarily mean that we cannot 'hear' what happens in a vacuum (such as the 'ring' of the star).

newmug

Ring, diamonds, star? This thread is turning into the cosmic poetry appreciation thread!

Rubecula

newmug wrote: »

Ring, diamonds, star? This thread is turning into the cosmic poetry appreciation thread!

Sounds more like a jewelry advert for Ratners. (See what I did there? :pac: )