January 2, 2008; Ten Billion Trillion Trillion Carat Diamond

xoxoxoBruce • Jan 2, 2008 3:19 am
PRAVDA, RU, claims scientists have discovered the largest diamond, evah!
Astronomers discovered the largest diamond of all times in space. The weight of the precious stone reportedly makes up ten billion trillion trillion carats or five million trillion trillion pounds).

The space diamond is virtually an enormous chunk of crystallized carbon, 4,000 kilometers in diameter. The stone is located at a distance of 50 light years from Earth, in the Constellation Centaurus.

Scientists believe that the diamond is the heart of an extinct star that used to shine like the Sun. Astronomers have already dubbed the space diamond as Lucy in a tribute to the Beatles song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.’

Image

If you don't want to travel 50 light years for a piece of it, all you have to do is wait.
Astronomers say that our Sun will die in five billion years and become a white dwarf too. About two billion years after it will turn into a similar diamond that will continue to sparkle in the center of the solar system forever.

Nikolai • Jan 2, 2008 7:53 pm
Yes first, yeah I know Im lame but still, and my god,

A businessman boarded a plane to find, sitting next to him, an elegant woman wearing the largest, most stunning diamond ring he had ever seen.

He asked her about it.

"This is the Catto diamond," she said.

"It is beautiful, but there is a terrible curse that goes with it."



"What's the curse?"

the man asked.

"Mr. Catto."
HungLikeJesus • Jan 2, 2008 8:57 pm
Stock in De beers is about to drop like a rock.
frasier123 • Jan 2, 2008 9:04 pm
This is certainly cool physics news but this picture is certainly a poory photoshopped "artist's conception"



...right?
HungLikeJesus • Jan 2, 2008 9:08 pm
Wow - 2 posts in 5 years. Is that a record?
LJ • Jan 2, 2008 9:12 pm
frasier123;421039 wrote:
This is certainly cool physics news but this picture is certainly a poory photoshopped "artist's conception"



...right?


it does have a certain "Flash Gordon" special effects quality to it, doesn't it? ooooowah!
Sperlock • Jan 2, 2008 9:35 pm
I think Pink Floyd's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' works here too:

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
Sheldonrs • Jan 2, 2008 10:20 pm
What I want to know is Where's Elizabeth Taylor?:D
Gravdigr • Jan 2, 2008 10:23 pm
You know how fabulous diamonds have a proper name, like: The Hope Diamond? This one will probably be called The Holy Fucking Shit Diamond.:eek:
Crimson Ghost • Jan 2, 2008 11:34 pm
It's nice and all, but is there a setting that'll be tasteful, yet understated?
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 2, 2008 11:54 pm
frasier123;421039 wrote:
This is certainly cool physics news but this picture is certainly a poory photoshopped "artist's conception"



...right?
I think you're right.
This is the other artists conception I've seen... not as pretty.
frasier123 • Jan 3, 2008 12:12 am
xoxoxoBruce;421097 wrote:
I think you're right.
This is the other artists conception I've seen... not as pretty.


but probably much more realistic
Elspode • Jan 3, 2008 12:45 am
All I can think of is Daffy Duck shoving Bugs Bunny off of it while saying, "Back, back, back! Mine, mine mine!!!"
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 3, 2008 12:49 am
:lol:
spudcon • Jan 3, 2008 3:42 am
Are you sure it's an artists conception? Aren't there other suns out there quartered like a grapefruit, and photographed by Dick Tracy, or Captain Kirk or something?
xoxoxoBruce;421097 wrote:
I think you're right.
This is the other artists conception I've seen... not as pretty.
tulzscha • Jan 3, 2008 9:12 pm
Crystallization of the material of a white dwarf of this type is thought to result in a body-centered cubic lattice of carbon and/or oxygen nuclei, which are surrounded by a Fermi sea of electrons.

That, um, isn't *quite* the same thing as diamond. Diamonds aren't, last I checked, composed of degenerate matter.

And Pravda.ru is Russian for Weekly World News -- all tabloid, all the time. So this thread is kinda like posting pictures of Bat Boy as IOTD :p
Crimson Ghost • Jan 4, 2008 12:32 am
Elspode;421140 wrote:
All I can think of is Daffy Duck shoving Bugs Bunny off of it while saying, "Back, back, back! Mine, mine mine!!!"
LJ • Jan 4, 2008 2:05 am
someday, we'll mine the asteroid belt. i know it will come to pass, cuz i read a sci fi book about it.
kerosene • Jan 4, 2008 12:46 pm
Was it written by L Ron Hubbard?
Shawnee123 • Jan 4, 2008 1:33 pm
We will find out when the aliens come back to get us in December of 2011. Wonder what they'll feed us?
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 4, 2008 5:11 pm
tulzscha;421397 wrote:
Crystallization of the material of a white dwarf of this type is thought to result in a body-centered cubic lattice of carbon and/or oxygen nuclei, which are surrounded by a Fermi sea of electrons.

That, um, isn't *quite* the same thing as diamond. Diamonds aren't, last I checked, composed of degenerate matter.

And Pravda.ru is Russian for Weekly World News -- all tabloid, all the time. So this thread is kinda like posting pictures of Bat Boy as IOTD :p
If you Google it, you'll find that the story is 4 years old and quite real.
Travis Metcalfe from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the lead member of a team of researchers discovered the largest diamond in the galaxy. It is a chunk of rock made of mainly crystallized carbon, 4,000 kilometers in diameter.
janet • Jan 5, 2008 12:39 am
HungLikeJesus;421040 wrote:
Wow - 2 posts in 5 years. Is that a record?


Never underestimate the persistence of long time lurkers.:3eye:
DanaC • Jan 5, 2008 3:42 pm
Holy shit, where'd you spring from? :p
classicman • Jan 5, 2008 4:01 pm
Thats really frightening - How the heck did you remember your password? I just gotta know.

I'll wait, but please don't make me wait another 5 years.....