Lucy in the sky Is a diamond

[Blue Fire]

I just ran across this from the Newsroom of IDEX (International Diamond Exchange):

A Diamond That’s Out of This World
(January 7, '07, 7:04 Signe Katz)

Try to imagine a 10 billion trillion carat diamond. Impossible? Well, it’s out there. Way out there – 50 light years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus, according to astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

These astronomers said they have discovered a star that’s essentially one big diamond, according to the BBC. The star is technically known as BPM 37093 but it’s being called ‘Lucy’ after the Beatle’s song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’ Lucy is a crystallized white dwarf which is the hot core of a star left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. The star is mostly made of carbon and it is 4,000 kilometers wide.

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

According to astronomers, 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,” said astronomer Travis Metcalfe who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

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

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

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

This is really amazing to me! Do the interiors of white dwarfs really crystallize? And, at only 50 light years, shouldn't this star have been noticed and studied before this? How ironic that I first see the newsbreak for this item at a diamond company! But of course, I can imagine how the editors there couldn't have resisted it.

[ozzmoziz]

wonder if this is gona push explorers to really get technology going really fast and build a warp ship to mine the sucker hehe

but thats very kewl am wondering if alot of dwarfs are like, that make sence , since the presure is extremely high and would put alot of presure on some elements and carbon too.

[Blue Fire]

Heh, ... just think - sometime in the far future, diamonds will no longer be a girl's best friend... they'll just become ordinary rocks soon after some enterprising company finds a way to mine them from white dwarfs and the market becomes flooded with Star Diamonds!

[Dragon Star]

"Give your wife the stars she's always dreamed of..."

[Blue Fire]

Originally Posted by Dragon Star

"Give your wife the stars she's always dreamed of..."

Yeah, right,... I gave her the Moon when we got married. It didn't work - eight years later we split. (you'll notice the Moon is back in it's rightful place in the sky ) But, hey, maybe in my next life I can get a really starry-eyed wife.