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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 10:02 AM Jun 2014

Cold 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.

more

http://www.space.com/26335-coldest-white-dwarf-star-diamond.html

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Cold Dead Star May Be a Giant Diamond (Original Post) n2doc Jun 2014 OP
Time for the Koch Brothers to start funding NASA 100% annabanana Jun 2014 #1
heck, Titan's a big ball o' hydrocarbons a few years' regular flight away MisterP Jun 2014 #5
It would be called... nikto Jun 2014 #6
"Twinkle twinkle little star KurtNYC Jun 2014 #2
Diamond is amazing stuff Cayenne Jun 2014 #3
We do have it in abundance. jeff47 Jun 2014 #4
I gotta' get me one of those... nikto Jun 2014 #8
the most absolute non stick Cayenne Jun 2014 #10
LSD nikto Jun 2014 #7
Kim Kardashian already contacted the International Astronomical Union to call dibs tclambert Jun 2014 #9

annabanana

(52,791 posts)
1. Time for the Koch Brothers to start funding NASA 100%
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 10:10 AM
Jun 2014

900 light years? pfft

Don't bother me with science..

MisterP

(23,730 posts)
5. heck, Titan's a big ball o' hydrocarbons a few years' regular flight away
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 03:03 PM
Jun 2014

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

KurtNYC

(14,549 posts)
2. "Twinkle twinkle little star
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 10:29 AM
Jun 2014

how I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky !?

Cayenne

(480 posts)
3. Diamond is amazing stuff
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 10:30 AM
Jun 2014

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)
4. We do have it in abundance.
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 12:18 PM
Jun 2014

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.

Cayenne

(480 posts)
10. the most absolute non stick
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 10:21 PM
Jun 2014

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.

tclambert

(11,077 posts)
9. Kim Kardashian already contacted the International Astronomical Union to call dibs
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 11:49 AM
Jun 2014

Then she demanded to know the color, cut, and clarity. We already know the carats: approximately 1.56 x 10²⁹ (that's 156 octillion).

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