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For All The Girls, I Give You A Diamond
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:02pm
trey
Coolness: 103440
For all the girls in the world, i give you a diamond. I just need to find a suitable courier. happy valentines.

[ cfa-www.harvard.edu ]

(for those too lazy to click, article is below)

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Release No.: 04-07
For Immediate Release: Friday, February 13, 2004

Cambridge, MA -- When choosing a Valentine's Day gift for a wife or girlfriend, you can't go wrong with diamonds. If you really want to impress your favorite lady this Valentine's Day, get her the galaxy's largest diamond. But you'd better carry a deep wallet, because this 10 billion trillion trillion carat monster has a cost that's literally astronomical!

"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. "Bill Gates and Donald Trump together couldn't begin to afford it."

When asked to estimate the value of the cosmic jewel, Ronald Winston, CEO of Harry Winston Inc., indicated that such a large diamond probably would depress the value of the market, stating, "Who knows? It may be a self-deflating prophecy because there is so much of it." He added, "It is definitely too big to wear!"

The newly discovered cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.) It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros.

"It's the mother of all diamonds!" says Metcalfe. "Some people refer to it as 'Lucy' in a tribute to the Beatles song 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.'"

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a 3,100-carat gem.

The huge cosmic gem (technically known as BPM 37093) is actually a crystallized white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gases.

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

"The hunt for the crystal core of this white dwarf has been like the search for the Lost Dutchman's Mine. It was thought to exist for decades, but only now has it been located," says co-author Michael Montgomery (University of Cambridge).

The white dwarf studied by Metcalfe, Montgomery, and Antonio Kanaan (UFSC Brazil), is not only radiant but also harmonious. It 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. We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

Our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallize as well, leaving a giant diamond in the center of our solar system.

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

A paper announcing this discovery has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters for publication.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:04pm
trey
Coolness: 103440
unrealistic chessy image
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» queen_B replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:05pm
queen_b
Coolness: 78100
diamonds are gay
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:11pm
trey
Coolness: 103440
i know. diamonds are just rocks.

hopefully, people will realise that equating love with diamond is frivolous. It would lessen the demand for diamonds, and discourage tribal wars in Africa.
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Phoenix replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:14pm
phoenix
Coolness: 82365
Actually, they're nothing more than carbon
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Violence_Inc replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:50pm
violence_inc
Coolness: 174765
for my wife, im getting her a slave. so much more practical.
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:51pm
screwhead
Coolness: 686265
Well, yeah, duhh, if she's your wife, she's got a slave.

You.
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» queen_B replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:51pm
queen_b
Coolness: 78100
sometimes diamonds are good.
like when you get a stereo in return
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» ApR1zM replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 2:55pm
apr1zm
Coolness: 165475
its not the actual value that counts its the concept that it reprazents
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» eLDee replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 3:32pm
eldee
Coolness: 121590
wait, if my mom's last name is Diamant, that makes me a diamond too!

awwwwww, i have to give myself to nadine then
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» ApR1zM replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 3:37pm
apr1zm
Coolness: 165475
as long she's taking care of your precious self!
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» eLDee replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 3:40pm
eldee
Coolness: 121590
don't worry bro, she's doing a great job =)
Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» ApR1zM replied on Sat Feb 14, 2004 @ 3:42pm
apr1zm
Coolness: 165475
hehe i didnt need that much info! oh YOu mean in general ! my bad heahaehea
For All The Girls, I Give You A Diamond
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