Huge Diamond Found in Space

[Vertex]

http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/26-12-2007/103178-largest_diamond-0

This site looks a little sketchy, but this story has been reported elsewhere.

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.’

"You would need a jeweler's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!" says astronomer Travis Metcalfe (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who leads a team of researchers that discovered the giant gem.

 

[Christopher]

Not surprising. We've known theoretically that the cores of Jovian planets or brown dwarfs might be giant diamonds, and that carbon planets could have mantles of diamond.

Heck, diamond isn't even as rare on Earth as most people believe. The diamond companies deliberately limit mining so they can keep their prices high.

 

[MIB]

^Hell, I can do you one better. We can actually manufacture flawless diamonds that are, in every way, identicle to "natural" diamonds.

 

[Amaris]

Sorry guys, but there's only one huge Diamond in space, and he's still crazy.

Shine on, you crazy Diamond.


J.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm sure this was reported a couple of years ago. Gotta wonder why they're reporting it again now, guess it's a slow news day.

 

[TerriO]

Santa`s Skutter said:
I'm sure this was reported a couple of years ago. Gotta wonder why they're reporting it again now, guess it's a slow news day.

It's Pravda online, which is apparently a bit more tabloid since Yeltsin closed the original down back in the early 1990s. According to their own website, they take a more pro-Russian approach in the online version, where the reborn newspaper is still somewhat Party-centric.

So, this coming around now could be one of those news cycles that hit tabloids. You know how those stories come around every now and again.

 

[Christopher]

MIB said:
^Hell, I can do you one better. We can actually manufacture flawless diamonds that are, in every way, identicle to "natural" diamonds.

Oh, sure, that goes without saying. Just another reason why the whole business about the preciousness of diamonds is just PR drummed up by the diamond industry.

 

[Seraphim]

nice

 

[TerriO]

Christopher said:

MIB said:
^Hell, I can do you one better. We can actually manufacture flawless diamonds that are, in every way, identicle to "natural" diamonds.

Oh, sure, that goes without saying. Just another reason why the whole business about the preciousness of diamonds is just PR drummed up by the diamond industry.

I'm assuming you have some kind of source for these allegations?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

TerriO said:

Christopher said:

MIB said:
^Hell, I can do you one better. We can actually manufacture flawless diamonds that are, in every way, identicle to "natural" diamonds.

Oh, sure, that goes without saying. Just another reason why the whole business about the preciousness of diamonds is just PR drummed up by the diamond industry.

I'm assuming you have some kind of source for these allegations?

It may not be one of those things that's widely reported but I believe it's quite well documented. I saw documentaries about how a guy found a big diamond vein in his private property and they tried to have him barred from selling or exploiting it himself because they're careful about how many diamonds they supply per year to keep the price high, and if he started to supply them it could half the price of diamonds in no time.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

If anyone wants to find out for themselves what diamonds are "really" worth, try selling one back to a jeweler. You might get 10% out of it, which is a bit below wholesale.

I'm surprised more people aren't aware of the scam that is the diamond industry. It must be because we're conditioned to think they're rare, when they are actually very common, just tightly-controlled by deBeers.

 

[TerriO]

Santa`s Skutter said:

TerriO said:

Christopher said:

MIB said:
^Hell, I can do you one better. We can actually manufacture flawless diamonds that are, in every way, identicle to "natural" diamonds.

Oh, sure, that goes without saying. Just another reason why the whole business about the preciousness of diamonds is just PR drummed up by the diamond industry.

I'm assuming you have some kind of source for these allegations?

It may not be one of those things that's widely reported but I believe it's quite well documented. I saw documentaries about how a guy found a big diamond vein in his private property and they tried to have him barred from selling or exploiting it himself because they're careful about how many diamonds they supply per year to keep the price high, and if he started to supply them it could half the price of diamonds in no time.

Let's just say the sources I found in a quick Google didn't make me too confident in their reliability. I've been looking further and yes, I have found some sources that I'd consider more reliable than the first batch, but to keep this from turning into a thread about the politics/economics of the diamond industry, which really isn't something for this forum, I'll just leave it at that and let's move on.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Just out of curiosity just how effective would the Earths atmosphere be at burning one of these bad boys up should one decide to impact the Earth? diamonds being one of the strongest objects in nature I was thinking if a very large one was heading our way what exactly could we possibly do against something so tough.

 

[Christopher]

If you let a large asteroid get as close as the Earth's atmosphere, it's too late to do anything about it no matter what it's made of (unless it's made of, ohh, cotton candy). Recent research has shown that the famous Tunguska event in 1908, a blast that levelled much of a Siberian forest, was caused by a much smaller impactor than previously believed:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/dnl-sso121807.php

That 3-5 megaton blast would be devastating if it hit a populated area. So it doesn't take a very large impactor to do a lot of damage. (Making it even more criminally irresponsible that the US government is trying to cut funding to asteroid-search programs and shut down the Arecibo radio telescope which is vital to that effort.)

So forget burning up in the atmosphere. If something that big is coming, we'd need to deflect it. All you have to do, if you catch it soon enough, is change its course by a fraction of a degree, and that would be just as doable with a diamond asteroid as anything else.

 

[FordSVT]

Fire said:
Just out of curiosity just how effective would the Earths atmosphere be at burning one of these bad boys up should one decide to impact the Earth? diamonds being one of the strongest objects in nature I was thinking if a very large one was heading our way what exactly could we possibly do against something so tough.

Anything 7,000 km wide wouldn't just impact the earth, it would turn both into an exploding, swirling molten ball that would take millions of years to cool down and coalesce into something that would resemble a proper planet again. Might even knock it completely out of orbit or form a new asteroid belt. This diamond is the size of Mars, I doubt there would be anything we could do to deflect it even a micro-degree, even if we sent our entire nuclear arsenal at it (which we can't anyway).

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Christopher said:
If you let a large asteroid get as close as the Earth's atmosphere, it's too late to do anything about it no matter what it's made of (unless it's made of, ohh, cotton candy). Recent research has shown that the famous Tunguska event in 1908, a blast that levelled much of a Siberian forest, was caused by a much smaller impactor than previously believed:

Yes I know, I was just wondering if a diamond would have trouble burning up in the atmosphere, I neglected to mention a change in size though, I forgot to say for example if the diamond wasnt so big and was only say a hundred metres across. I'm just trying to get a feel for how much difference there would be from a normal Iron based asteroid entering the atmosphere and pure diamond of the same size.

FordSVT said:

Fire said:
Just out of curiosity just how effective would the Earths atmosphere be at burning one of these bad boys up should one decide to impact the Earth? diamonds being one of the strongest objects in nature I was thinking if a very large one was heading our way what exactly could we possibly do against something so tough.

Anything 7,000 km wide wouldn't just impact the earth, it would turn both into an exploding, swirling molten ball that would take millions of years to cool down and coalesce into something that would resemble a proper planet again. Might even knock it completely out of orbit or form a new asteroid belt. This diamond is the size of Mars, I doubt there would be anything we could do to deflect it even a micro-degree, even if we sent our entire nuclear arsenal at it (which we can't anyway).

I guess its logical to assume if say for example one of these diamonds broke up due to collisions and only a small fragment aproached the Earth the same size of a small asteroid it wouldnt burn up as effectively as the asteroid and probably wouldnt fully disintegrate on impact..

 

[Christopher]

The melting point of diamond is the highest of any known material, so yeah, it would be more resistant to burning up in the atmosphere. But remember, the Tunguska object didn't reach the ground. It detonated in an air blast equal to a 3-5 megaton nuke. And it did a hell of a lot of damage to that Siberian forest, and would've done far worse had it detonated over a city. So whether a body that size or bigger actually reaches the ground isn't all that relevant -- it certainly won't be harmless if it disintegrates in the atmosphere. Either way, once it's in the atmosphere, that kinetic energy is going to be delivered one way or another.

Well, I should qualify that statement. Odds are that such a body would come in over the ocean. An aerial detonation over the ocean probably wouldn't do a lot of damage except to nearby sea life or air traffic, but a splashdown could cause devastating tsunamis. So yeah, in that regard it would make a difference.

 

[scotthm]

Christopher said:
If something that big is coming, we'd need to deflect it. All you have to do, if you catch it soon enough, is change its course by a fraction of a degree, and that would be just as doable with a diamond asteroid as anything else.

But wouldn't that protect you for just that one orbit? If an asteroid barely misses you one year, won't it likely be a threat for sometime in the future?

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[Robert Maxwell]

It would only be a future threat if it's captured into an orbit by our sun's gravity. If it's ejected right out of our solar system, we shouldn't have to worry about it again--at least, not until it makes another round-trip around the galaxy!

 

[scotthm]

Robert Maxwell said:
It would only be a future threat if it's captured into an orbit by our sun's gravity.

I had assumed that most asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth were already in such an orbit.

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