The Galaxy's Largest Diamond 364
unassimilatible writes "The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reports 'to impress your favorite lady this Valentine's Day, get her the galaxy's largest diamond.' A newly discovered cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros. A cheesy, unrealistic simulation is also available. AP has a story as well."
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Beware (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bugus science at it again (Score:5, Funny)
Jealousy. If there's a bigger diamond out there, someone's girlfriend/wife is sure to find out/know about it. "Hrmph. Well, I guess it's nice, but I hear Centaraus has a 10 billion trillion trillion carat diamond!"
closer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:closer (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:closer (Score:2)
Re:someone should check their sources (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of Clarke's explanation for this theory (in "2061", actually) explained that Jupiter's high gravity would cause the more massive molecules -- like methane, which Jupiter definitely has in quantity -- would sink through the atmosphere towards the core. And at the core, the intense pressures would separate the carbon from the hydrogen (in the methane), and the hydrogen would waft back up (being of lesser mass), while the carbon would stay in the core.
Think of it as being like a black hole, except without the extreme singularity -- instead of being compressed to a single point, it's being compressed into a diamond. (But it's not just the gravity doing this, it's also the intense atmospheric pressure of all the gasses sitting above the core, too.)
Re:someone should check their sources (Score:3, Interesting)
Read more:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/carbon-99d.
2010 : Odyssey Two (Score:5, Informative)
Re:2010 : Odyssey Two (Score:5, Funny)
Re:2010 : Odyssey Two (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:closer (Score:5, Interesting)
In any of those cases, the state of matter at jupiter's core would be pretty exotic stuff, even a diamond at those temperatures and pressures would flow like water...
And no, jupiter was never large enough to have sustained fusion, though it does emit a whole lotta heat and readio waves.
Genda Bendte
Re:closer (Score:3, Funny)
It's rumored that GWAR originally came from the core of Jupiter before the Master sent them, the Scumdogs of the Universe, to an iceberg in Antactica.
DeBeers (Score:5, Funny)
Oh my God... (Score:5, Funny)
mitch
Re:um what? (Score:2)
Sheesh. Next you'll wanna know what nougat is.
W
thank god for that high res pic (Score:5, Funny)
in a galaxy far, far away. (Score:5, Insightful)
Just in time for Valentine's Day (Score:5, Funny)
This getting married thing is getting more and more complicated each year.
Re:Just in time for Valentine's Day (Score:5, Funny)
why it's complicated (Score:4, Funny)
That's why it's so complicated. You think having more than 1 girlfriend is difficult to swing? - better not try the "another wife every year" thing.
-tid242
Largest diamond? (Score:2, Informative)
Then again, maybe Sir Arthur's conjecture is right and there's a much larger diamond in our own "backyard". Now if only the Firstborn would do their thing and fire up Lucifer, diamond would be as cheap as sand...
http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2270.html
Re:Largest diamond? (Score:2, Funny)
I'm sorry, Dave, but I can't allow you to do that. It would jepordize the mission.
Re:Largest diamond? (Score:5, Insightful)
ppfffttt (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ppfffttt (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ppfffttt (Score:5, Informative)
A "snob"? A little skepticism is warranted here.
White dwarfs have densities in the ballpark of one million grams per cc. Have we ever compressed any matter on earth at all to a density of 1 million grams per cc? Do you seriously think that carbon, which as diamond has an invariant density of 3.51 g/cc, would still exist in something resembling its familiar form at a density of 1 million g/cc? As a covalently bonded sp3 tetrahedral diamond lattice?
The internuclear spacing of carbon nuclei in a carbon dwarf is about 1% of what it is in an ordinary diamond. It may be made of carbon, but this is not diamond. I doubt it's even diamondlike. It's something else.
Thanks for the sanity. (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks for bringing some sanity to this discussion. The author of the original story was just trying to get attention, and probably knows nothing about the physics of stars.
Re:ppfffttt (Score:3, Interesting)
Probably. When a supercolliders collide two gold nuclei, the density gets pretty damned high, but unfortunately I can't seem to Google any solid numbers up. I'd strongly suspect that the density gets into that range.
Of course your point stands, in that we have never taken macroscopic quantities of matter up to that density, and what matter we have taken to that density doesn't stay there long at all.
Just an informa
Re:ppfffttt (Score:4, Informative)
Oh in those collisions the density is much much higher- maybe a factor of a thousand times higher, approaching neutron star density. But in fact ALL nuclei have comparable density and as you point out we have no macroscopic quantity of this stuff.
White dwarfs are supported by degenerate electron pressure. So many electrons are crammed into such a small space that the entire star has become something like one giant atom with lots of nuclei in it. All low energy electron quantum states are occupied by electrons. Except at the very highest energy levels near the Fermi energy [wikipedia.org], which are adjacent to unoccupied levels immediately above, giving the electrons in those states a little freedom of movement.
A white dwarf has no internal energy source- it spends the rest of its life cooling down into a cinder. Since the star is hot (surface temps are commonly 100000 K) there is some spillover into higher energy levels. But as the star cools down, they gradually settle down and fill all available levels below the Fermi energy.
The nuclei, OTOH, still have plenty of room. They are still bouncing around and having collisions in the star like a classical gas because they still have so many unoccupied quantum states to explore. There probably isn't much difference between a carbon-dominated white dwarf and a helium-dominated one, since the behavior of both is mostly determined by what the electrons are doing. The article says that by studying pulsations of the star, they determined that the interior has "solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond". It leaves out some details. What is "solidifying"? The electrons or the embedded nuclei? It could mean a bunch of things. "Diamond" is not really one of them, though. This would be a different sort of diamond than you are used to.
When you hear an astrophysicist claiming that he has found a "girl's best friend" in space, always be skeptical. These physicists know little about what girls really want.
Quite the sparkle? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe a more worthwhile story would be on the fact that the entire diamond industry is created by incredibly strict control of the supply, which is kept artificially low to dramatically inflate price. If people knew, and accepted, the truth this wouldn't be considered that much more special than the fact that some other planets are just big, big versions of rocks. Gasp!
Re:Quite the sparkle? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the sad thing is that most people seem to already know this but no one does / can do (?) anything to stop them. DeBeers, after all, pretty much controls the majority of diamonds on this planet.
To give DeBeers the slap in the face they need, maybe we should harvest this white dwarf. Heck, just tell Liz Taylor about this and she'll get that "sparkly" diamond almost half as big as she is in no time!
Slashdot has already run that story (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Quite the sparkle? (Score:5, Informative)
But in time, the bottom will fall out. In 1943, Linde Chemical created the first synthetic sapphire. Now, you can buy 200mm sapphire bar stock. [maintechsapphires.com] Big 16mm gem-quality sapphires are available for about $10. The same thing happened to rubies and emeralds.
They're just rocks, people.
Corrected URL (Score:5, Informative)
They're selling yellow diamonds. I thought the Russians had a process years ago for adding some metal to the stew that hoovered up the nitrogen that caused the yellow color, producing clear diamonds.
I'm with the Slashdotter who said that even at the same price, he'd prefer to own or give a jewel embodying human science, engineering, ingenuity and cooperation rather than one dug out of the ground in an armed camp. My wife feels the same way. If I had to have a natural diamond I'd wait for a Martian one.
Re:Quite the sparkle? (Score:3, Informative)
Sure it is, it's rare, though, and quite unlike gemstones, can not be synthesized (transmuted, yes, but that costs way more than gold itself).
And cash is just ink and paper.
Yes, it is. In that respect, you're right, cash is just like diamonds - it's only valuable because it's controlled by someone - but unlike diamonds, cash is not controlled by illegal cartel. Some people won't like governments or other administrative organizations, but I don't think anyone thinks mone
Woo. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Woo. (Score:5, Funny)
Well, if you stop reading slashdot maybe your computer won't notice. :)
What's the surface gravity? (Score:2)
I'd still get nagged... (Score:2, Funny)
"You dont love me...."
*sigh*
Formation (Score:4, Interesting)
Did this diamond form based on the same principles as diamonds here on Earth? I thought coal had to be very highly compressed for ages before it became a diamond. Not so?
Re:Formation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Formation (Score:4, Funny)
So maybe its a chunk of a planet that got creamed by a really big rock.
Or, more likely, its a rejected engagement ring on some faraway planet.
Female Alien: Only 10 billion trillion trillion carats?! You OBVIOUSLY don't love me that much if thats all you can afford! Throw it into space, I don't want it!! *stomps off*
Re:Formation (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, my (educated) guess would be that this given star had enough mass to fuse elements up to carbon, but not further - not enough to sustain its continued existance as a 'star', anyway.
At least, I'm inferring from the article that this star is fast becoming a 'black dwarf' - I could be wrong and this is just a white dwarf in its carbon stage, but by that measure there would certainly be far, far larger diamonds out there (and in great numbers).
Re:Formation (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Formation (Score:5, Informative)
As stars run out of hydrogen, they start fusing other elements present in their cores. This takes them through different stages of stellar evolution (red giant, horizontal branch stars, assymptotic branch stars, etc.) They continue to gain energy from this process until they reach iron. When these stars fuse elements heavier than iron, they don't actually get a net energy output from the reaction and thus their pressure source (fusion) cannot sustain the equilibrium against the gravitational force that constantly tries to collapse them. This is when a supernovae event occurs. As the star collapses under its own gravitation, the core rapidly fuses anything it can as the density increases. This is why the previous poster is right in saying that the main source for elements heavier than iron in the universe is supernovae.
Re:Formation (Score:2)
valuables in space (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure there will be other such finds. This huge diamond probably doesn't even scratch the surface. (ha!)
The economy of large extraterrestrial finds? (Score:2)
The main problem is that the Earth's economy would be screwed up if something of immense value was brought back.
The value of gold (and our reliance on it to balance certain markets) or oil is based on there being a fixed amount of it, a regulated supply of it, or both. If you brought back several trillion dollars worth of gold in one giant lump from the Moon, the price o
Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds? (Score:2)
Actually, gold is a very useful material. Check out this link [goldinstitute.org] for some uses. It doesn't corrode, it is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and can be made into really thin wires without br
Re:The economy of large extraterrestrial finds? (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine if gold were cheaper than lead - we could market environmentally friendly "lead-free" ammunition. If we had access to diamond sheets large enough, perhaps we could construct windows out of it. Instead of copper wiring, we'd have gold wiring instead. Circuit boards would be plated with gold, and maybe we'd see the return of $20 gold coins that are actually worth $20.
What would REALLY be valuable would be catalytic elements like platinum or palladium. Bring back enough of those and whole new industries could be built around them...
Just think of the economical implications (Score:4, Interesting)
If you introduce so much gold into the world that its as abundant as lead, then there would need to be a new rare mineral to back currency. If this was to happen, every currency would be worthless, and so would gold. It would be just like the massive inflation Germany suffered in the 1920's... imagine pushing cartloads of gold to buy one loaf of bread.
Gold reserves non-issue (Score:4, Informative)
If the world were flooded with gold, industrialized nations would use it as a resource in producing consumer goods. We would have gold everything, but, the world markets would remain intact.
on closer inspection (Score:5, Funny)
Announcing... (Score:2, Funny)
Numbers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Numbers (Score:4, Insightful)
well i see they took the same amount of time and effort as you did. do you actually know what a number with 34 zeros behind it is called??
no? well then. shut the fuck up - it is in the clearest possible format for most people.
oh and i did bother to google [google.ca] for it and the first result tells me that it is 10 decilion to americans, or 10 000 quintillion to the rest of the world.
dont just bitch, actually try and learn something - its not hard.
Re:Numbers (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, it's called n*10^34 by everyone I'd ever discuss such large numbers with. Assigning an arbitrary and inconsistent name (see your US vs. everybody comment) is just plain dumb. Do you think crypto guys convert between decillions and decajillions when discussing collision rates, or that physicists have any interest in petadillions or hexamuphillions other than when they have to write a press release? No. There's a widely used and
Re:Numbers (Score:2)
*Is* there even a proper name for "5 million trillion trillion"? I've heard that the British use some funny system where a billion is a million million instead of a thousand million, and if that's true they might have a name for it, but do people who use normal number-naming schemes?
Re:Numbers (Score:4, Informative)
million: 6 zeroes
milliard: 9 zeroes
billion: 12
billiard: 15
trillion: 18
trilliard: 21
quadrillion: 24
quintillion: 30
hexillion or sexillion: 36
septillion: 42
octillion: 48
nonillion: 54
decillion: 60
undecillion: 66
duodecillion: 72
A duodecillion is about as big as you get, roughly being the number of particles in the galaxy. You could keep on counting if you liked, the system is a derivative of roman numerals (with some greek for flavour).
In the 17th century the French decided to get rid of all the "iard"'s and have steps of 3 zeroes instead of 6 between the "ion"'s. The USA adopted this system.
The Brittish kept the original system, and in 1948 the French reverted to the "iard" system, this leaving the USA as the only country ussing a different system, giving rise to much misunderstanding and potential problems like space probes hitting Mars.
Adriaan Renting.
Re:Numbers (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Numbers (Score:3, Informative)
The U.S. isn't the only country in North America!
Re:Numbers (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Numbers (Score:3, Informative)
You can find the name for "5 million trillion trillion" == 5e30 by using my English name of a number [isthe.com], an open source Perl program that can generate names of numbers of any size (e.g., the English name of the largest known prime [isthe.com]).
In the above article, one could replace ''5 million trillion trillion pounds'' with:
And one
Re:Numbers (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't matter (Score:5, Funny)
It wouldn't matter if someone went up and brought the diamond back. As soon as you send it to the jewelers to be mapped and evaluated, they'll just swap it out for another, lesser quality, diamond without you even knowing.
I say leave it in place. We could shave off the first 30 miles of top layer and shine a giant laser at it for the largest intergalactic network ever known to man. Since it would take light 50 years to travel to the planet, Half-Life 2 should be just about ready to play by then....galaxy's largest diamond. (Score:5, Funny)
I hear that Tau Ceti is bragging that they bought a larger one.
But I'll bet it's not flawless (Score:5, Funny)
So, don't overpay for it, no matter what the salesman says about size mattering...
TSG
Re:Funny. . . (Score:2)
Weird Shit from Outer Space we'd like to see... (Score:5, Funny)
- A twenty-billion tonne meteor shaped exactly like the Hand of God, heading straight for Ur^h^h the planet Earth.
- Life on Mars, complete with funky trance tunes and dayglo noserings.
- A bong the size of NYC, containing twenty billion tonnes of a material that under examination appears to be chemically identical to Tunisian purple haze. Said bong is orbiting the Sun quite close to Mars and already the petition to send a manned mission to Mars has collected five hundred and thirty million signatures. Most of them say, "send me, send me!" Others just say, "Dude, that's too much!"
- A radio beacon embedded in the heart of a small black rock circling one of Pluto's moon. After the rock is detected and retrieved in 2032 at incredible expense, and cracked open following ten years of drilling, it is found to contain a copy of MAD Magazine from circa 1972 and a small piece of paper with the words "regular delivery to this address, please" on it.
- The discovery, in a deep crater on Mars, of an underground passage leading to a huge room filled with silent, brooding machines. After long study and careful analysis of the patterns and markings, we activate one of the machines. Immediately the whole room comes to life and a small black hole appears in its center. The Martian surface starts to slide into the black hole, then the entire planet, and finally the whole Solar System. A team of two plutonaughts watch the scene from the far boundaries of the Plutonian orbit, and as the last specks are absorbed into the now huge and pulsating black hole, they read, in huge flashing letters, the text "ZIPPING COMPLETE. NOW REFORMATTING MEDIA... 1% COMPLETE, PLEASE WAIT."
Wait til De Beers finds out (Score:2)
I'm reaching high up (Score:5, Funny)
10 billion trillion trillion??? (Score:3, Informative)
Valentines Day? (Score:3, Funny)
Yes but can fedex or UPS deliver it for Valentines day, any geek could get laid with one of these.
calculations (again) (Score:5, Informative)
Gravitatotional Force
Fg = G * m1 * m2 * r^-2
Gravitational Acceleration Fg/m2
Ag = G *m1 * r^-2
G = 6.67E-11
m1= 5 million trillion trillion lbs = 5 * 10^6 * 10^12 * 10^12 lbs= 5E30 lbs *(1kg/2.2lbs) = 2.26E30 kg
r = diameter of 2500mi/2 = 1250mi * (1609 m/mi) = 2011680 meters
Ag= 6.67E-11 * 2.26E30kg * (2011680m)^-2 = 37,249,159.4 m/s^2
Ag = (37,249,159.4 m/s^2)/(9.8 m/s^2)= 3,800,934.63 g's
3.8 million times earth gravity?
Unless there was some mistake in the way they described the mass (million billion trillion) that seems pretty rough right?
again correct me if i was wrong.
Re:calculations (again) (Score:5, Informative)
so we'll end with round about 3040.74 g's, if everything else is right, which i didn't check.
More reasonable units of measure (Score:5, Informative)
Re:More reasonable units of measure (Score:2)
Acceleration due to Gravity? (Score:2, Informative)
acceleration = Gm/r^2
G = Gravitational constant = 6.67*10^-11
m = mass (Kg) = 2.26796185*10^30 Kg (or - 5*10^30 Lb)
r = radius to the center of the object (m) = 2011680 m (or - 2500miles / 2)
acceleration = (6.67*10^-11)(2.26796185*10^30 Kg) / (2011680 m ^2)
acceleration due to gravity = 37,380,386.1 m/s^2 !?!?!?!?
High quality animation.. (Score:2)
Well well (Score:3, Funny)
I for one, welcome our new diamond overlords.
Giant Diamond Asteroid on crash course with earth (Score:3, Funny)
DeBeers? (Score:3, Funny)
and now... (Score:3, Funny)
Percieved Value (Score:2, Informative)
Diamonds unfortunately are the product of blood feuds, multination
Comics (Score:3, Funny)
lucy is over there too (Score:2)
stupid (Score:2, Insightful)
when I read about a huge diamond in space, I expect a little more than a white dwarf discovery. Come on, this is ridiculous.
space diamonds? (Score:4, Interesting)
We know (we think we know) that there is a lot of dark matter between star ssystems and between galaxies. No need to go that far - there is a belt of cold rocks outside of Pluto. Who knows, maybe some of those rocks are broken pieces of one of such diamond star.
Now, it's a matter of time that they will discover of proof of such diamond rocks there and begin hunting for them. Can it stimulate investors to space industry?
No (Score:3, Insightful)
Dammit! (Score:3, Funny)
sell it on ebay! (Score:3, Funny)
Um...not quite (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Um...not quite (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Um...not quite (Score:4, Interesting)
50 light years is pretty close, wonder if the early reptiles may have witnessed the nova explosion, in fact it would be interesting to find out if it had any effect on life here on earth.
Re:Um...not quite (Score:5, Interesting)
It takes about ten billion years for a white dwarf (average) to cool off to the point of not being visible. The age of the universe is about 13-14 billion years old.
However, do not plan on going to the white dwarf to go diamond mining, as it is still quite hot, and it's gravity would squish you flat.
But eventually they will become dark cold diamond cinders.
But one interesting thing is that white dwarfs can accumulate material from companion stars over time. When this white dwarf obtains 1.4 solar mass it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit, and a type 1a supernova explosion occurs. You don't want to be around.
If you were thinking of collecting boken diamonds from the aftermath, think again.
Diamond undergoes catastrophic allotropic conversion conversion to graphite at 1800 C. This is exceeded a few million times in a supernova producing carbon ions.
So, the conclusion I draw from this -- the carbon in our bodies could have come from diamonds, having originated from a white dwarf that crystallized and later became a type 1a supernova
Correct me if I'm wrong, physicists.
Same thing here! (Score:5, Funny)
For my girlfriend to get her diamond gift from me, she had to do the same.
Blow...very hard rock...
Re:Same thing here! (Score:5, Funny)
Moderators, come on! (Score:5, Informative)
The poster is a well-known troll: look at his history. Please mod the jerk into oblivion.
Not necessarily diamond (Score:4, Informative)
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0402046
Second, nowhere in the paper is there any mention of "diamond". Crystallized carbon can also be in graphite form, so it might actually be a very large pencil lead...