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Aug 28, 2011

Diamond Planet Catches Astronomers' Eyes

If you thought Kim Kardashian's engagement ring was a ridiculous rock, you haven't seen the ludicrously large diamond planet, J1719-1438. Scientists at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne recently spotted this celestial body that's so dense, it's believed to be crystalline carbon -- i.e. a ginormous diamond similar in size to Jupiter. Since the 60s, astrophysicists like Marc Kuchner have theorized that carbon-heavy stars can burn out, crystallize and form diamonds under the right pressure.

Supporting the idea, a white dwarf star spotted in 1992, BPM 37093, had cooled and crystallized over the course of 12 years -- even copping the nickname "Lucy" after the Beatles jam. Although astronomers in Australia, Britain and Hawaii have all identified the newly spotted precious planet J1719-1438, they are still unsure if the crystallized carbon rock will be all sparkly mountains up close -- dashing the hopes and dreams of material girls everywhere.




12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting news!

Styron said...

send some SCV's

BDTC said...

Well, too bad its so damn far away!
Imagine the influx of diamonds if we could reach the "Diamond Planet", the price of diamonds would crash fast!

JDC said...

Awesome, but realistically never be able to reach it/make use of it =/

D22 Zone said...

This is interesting! thanks for updating!

bbonnar said...

Good stuff!

Shockgrubz said...

I'd live there if I could find some shorts that wouldn't tear when I sit down.

animestan said...

That's pretty cool. Too bad they can't make use of it.

odis9000 said...

only if it were closer to us we could mine it out and diamonds would be so cheap.

Bloggerage said...

diamonds aren't even rare. xD

MRanthrope said...

that is like the ultimate supervillian/boss planet. Made out of diamonds!

Anonymous said...

would make a nice wallpaper