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Want a Diamond the size of Earth?

Started by Nam, June 24, 2014, 07:03:46 PM

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Nam

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/9120/20140624/white-dwarf-star-crystallized-super-massive-diamond-space.htm
QuoteA white dwarf star, the coldest and dimmest ever found, has been discovered. This carbon-rich stellar body is so cold, it has formed a diamond in space the size of the Earth. Surface temperatures of just 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit may seem hot in terrestrial terms, but is frigid in stellar terms. Our own sun has a surface temperature of nearly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

White dwarfs are the collapsed remnants of stars roughly the mass of our own sun. They are approximately the size of our home planet, and composed mostly of carbon and oxygen. The stellar corpses slowly dim over time, and astronomers believe this body is around 11 billion years old, roughly the same age as the Milky Way.

This giant diamond in space was discovered using a series of radio observatories, including the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). It lies 870 light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Aquarius.

It is a member of a binary system, paired with a pulsar, named PSR J2222-0137. These bodies are another type of stellar remnant, called neutron stars, the remains of stars more massive than our sun. Pulsars spin at incredible rates, and produce electromagnetic beams that can be directed toward the Earth. This pulsar was discovered before the  companion, using the GBT, and measured to be spinning 30 times every second. Astronomers calculated the body had an unseen companion, which was theorized could be a super-cool white dwarf.

"It's a really remarkable object. These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find," David Kaplan from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said.

Adam Deller, an astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), studied the system for two years, sing the VLBA.

Investigation of signals from the pair were used to measure warping of space caused by the system. This effect, like waves in water from a pair of twirling bathers, was first predicted by Albert Einstein. These ripples in space-time cause a delay in signals from the pulsar, when it is on the "far" side of the waves. This effect was used to calculate masses of the dead stars with great precision. The white dwarf was found to have a mass  five percent greater than our sun, and the pulsar was found to be 20 percent more massive than our companion star.

"The recycled pulsar PSR J2222-0137 is one of the closest known neutron stars," researchers wrote in an article, announcing the results of their study, published in Astrophysical Journal.

Measurements of the distance to the pulsar is believed to be the most accurate ever made.

Investigation of the pulsar/white dwarf pair is detailed on the Cornell University Library Web site.

Someone build me a spaceship so I can get me some bling!

-Nam

Mad cow disease...it's not just for cows, or the mad!

The Skeletal Atheist

Hell no, that would drive diamond prices so low that they would be worthless!
Some people need to be beaten with a smart stick.

Kein Mehrheit Fur Die Mitleid!

Kein Mitlied F�r Die Mehrheit!

Sal1981

The gamma rays from the pulsar would fry your brain before you ever got close enough.

Hydra009

Quote from: The Skeletal Atheist on June 25, 2014, 03:45:19 AMHell no, that would drive diamond prices so low that they would be worthless!
Actually, diamonds aren't all that rare - you're essentially paying for a service, not a product.  And if people weren't so damn picky about which shiny rock they affix to their finger, the cost would be minimal.

Basically, convention and marketing cheat people out of several months of pay.

Nam

Quote from: Sal1981 on June 25, 2014, 08:02:31 AM
The gamma rays from the pulsar would fry your brain before you ever got close enough.

Why are speaking logically? That's just illogical. Now...where's my spaceship!?!?!

-Nam
Mad cow disease...it's not just for cows, or the mad!

AllPurposeAtheist

DeBeers owns that planet already which brings up a rw talking point of why it's futile to save the earth, planets are forever.
All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.

Solitary

Stick around long enough and our sun will show you are wrong, while the earth gets vaporized. Just a suggestion for future reference.  :razz: :biggrin: Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

AllPurposeAtheist

Quote from: Solitary on June 25, 2014, 01:08:17 PM
Stick around long enough and our sun will show you are wrong, while the earth gets vaporized. Just a suggestion for future reference.  :razz: :biggrin: Solitary
OMG OMG OMG! Well, save that crow dinner for me. :lol:
All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.

Solitary

It is something to crow about when the sun comes up then.  :pai: Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

AllPurposeAtheist

Pulsars/White dwarfs are a girls best friend.
All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.

Jason78

Quote from: Nam on June 24, 2014, 07:03:46 PM
Want a Diamond the size of Earth?

Oh Nam!  You've made me the happiest girl in the world!

[spoiler]He proposed, you all saw.[/spoiler]
Winner of WitchSabrinas Best Advice Award 2012


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real
tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

GalacticBusDriver

Quote from: The Skeletal Atheist on June 25, 2014, 03:45:19 AMHell no, that would drive diamond prices so low that they would be worthless!

Nah. Just sell it to De Beers for a fortune and let them hide it so they can keep their artificial diamond prices high.
"We should admire Prometheus, not Zues...Job, not Jehovah. Becoming a god, or godlike being, is selling out to the enemy. From the Greeks to the Norse to the Garden of Eden, gods are capricious assholes with impulse control problems. Joining their ranks would be a step down."

From "Radiant" by James Alan Gardner