Science
Related: About this forumCold Dead Star May Be a Giant Diamond
Astronomers aren't being poetic when they say this star is a diamond.
Scientists have identified what is possibly the coldest white dwarf ever detected. In fact, this dim stellar corpse is so cold that its carbon has crystallized, effectively forming a diamond the size of Earth, astronomers said.
"It's a really remarkable object," study leader David Kaplan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find." [10 Strangest Things in Space]
Kaplan and colleagues were able to find this cosmic gem because it has a more conspicuous companion. The white dwarf does an orbital tango with a pulsar, or a fast-spinning neutron star formed from a supernova explosion that sends out a stream of radio waves like a lighthouse beam. Dubbed PSR J2222-0137, the pulsar lies 900 light-years away from Earth near the constellation Aquarius, and it was first detected using the NRAO's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
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http://www.space.com/26335-coldest-white-dwarf-star-diamond.html
annabanana
(52,791 posts)900 light years? pfft
Don't bother me with science..
MisterP
(23,730 posts)sure it's zero return on investment, like everything else in space (the predictions of trillion-dollar kilometer-wide asteroids was just grasping at straws, and demands we get to Mars NOW because we gotta conquer it are all based on pre-1965 visions of the Inner System)
it's fun to send bots and occasional kosmonautsy upstairs, though
nikto
(3,284 posts)KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)how I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky !?
Cayenne
(480 posts)Too bad we don't have it in abundance. It makes for the sharpest and strongest edge. It is the best thermal conductor and would make the ideal frying pan. It is in the family of silicon and is a semiconductor. Arthur C. Clarke theorized an elevator into orbit could be built of diamond it is so strong.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Industrial-quality diamond is extremely common.
Gem-quality diamond is somewhat uncommon, but DeBeers works very hard to make it less available, and thus rare in the market.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Diamond frying pans.
Are they non-stick?
Cayenne
(480 posts)even paint and primer would not adhere to a diamond surface. The come out of the ground sparkling clean. It would be an engineering problem to solve on how to join diamond pieces as you could glue them together.
Lucy In the Sky with a giant Diamond.
tclambert
(11,077 posts)Then she demanded to know the color, cut, and clarity. We already know the carats: approximately 1.56 x 10²⁹ (that's 156 octillion).