10 billion trillion trillion-carat diamond

[iamaboringperson]

here (http://sacbee.com/state_wire/story/8260120p-9190734c.html)

The diamond is a massive chunk of crystallized carbon that lies about 300 trillion miles from Earth, in the constellation Centaurus.


I want to collect it! Who's with me?

[blobrana]

Hum,
i think i`ll just wait 5 billion years for our sun to turn into one...

BTW, the astronomers have named the star `Lucy`, er, as in `lucy in the sky with diamonds` ,(or was that LSD?)



<Yes really>




[some ppl haven't heard of the beatles - (not as famous as jesus) ]

[iamaboringperson]

I like that song.


:-D

What I don't understand, and perhaps I'm missing something here, is that diamonds aren't even really that rare as to justify the price. There are much more rare rocks out there which are basically lining fish tanks world-wide.

Wayne

[Speelgoedmannetje]

@Wayne
For as far as I know both diamond and gold supply is limited to assure it's price. I do not know where it is stated, WTO probably.

[KennyR]

Wayne wrote:
What I don't understand, and perhaps I'm missing something here, is that diamonds aren't even really that rare as to justify the price. There are much more rare rocks out there which are basically lining fish tanks world-wide.

You can also pump out diamonds in an industrial process.

Difference is - they're all imperfect. Imperfect diamonds are common. Nothing beats a real diamond from the ground with a professional cut (so DeBeers tells us). These things are definitely rare.

[KennyR]

Anyway I'm a bit disappointed. I always thought cooled-out white dwarf stars were made of a solid core of degenerate iron, much cooler stuff than diamond. But I guess the pressure and heat in little stars isn't enough to use carbon as a fuel and it's left over. Bah.

[bloodline]

[some ppl haven't heard of the beatles - (not as famous as jesus) ]

Who the hell is joosus? ;-)

Believe it or not there are some people who've never heard of Depeche Mode... :-o but they live on cold little islands away from civilisation. :-D

[bloodline]

KennyR wrote:
Anyway I'm a bit disappointed. I always thought cooled-out white dwarf stars were made of a solid core of degenerate iron, much cooler stuff than diamond. But I guess the pressure and heat in little stars isn't enough to use carbon as a fuel and it's left over. Bah.

No, you need really massive stars to fuse up to Iron!

[Speelgoedmannetje]

bloodline wrote:
[some ppl haven't heard of the beatles - (not as famous as jesus) ]

Who the hell is joosus? ;-)

Believe it or not there are some people who've never heard of Depeche Mode... :-o but they live on cold little islands away from civilisation. :-DHEY! I've never heard about Depeche Mode before you mentioned it. And I live in the centre of civilization. No Kees, your opinion about Groningen is not wanted here :-)

[cecilia]

Wayne wrote:
What I don't understand, and perhaps I'm missing something here, is that diamonds aren't even really that rare as to justify the price. There are much more rare rocks out there which are basically lining fish tanks world-wide.

Wayne
you are correct sir! there's this whole industry set up to bilk the public into thinking diamonds are the bees knees.this is just to jack the price up.
i personally find them boring.
once in a while you see an interesting diamond. Like the Hope diamond. it's got a slight blue tinge to it. it's nice, but i would never wear it. way too gaudy! it's only useful as a sculpture.

other stones are much more beautiful! my mother loves emeralds.

[Quixote]

@KennyR:

Actually, the imperfections are what distinguish naturally occurring diamonds from artificially produced ones, until recently. Today, artificial gemstones can be produced which are indistinguishable from natural ones, and the cartels are nervous.

[blobrana]

Yea, when the kimberly diamond fields were found (1888?) the De-Beers basically had to restrict the supply, otherwise the diamonds would be too cheap to mine....

Hum, i seem to remember the blue colour comes from cobalt impurities and since the outer electron shell is `empty` i believe that the `hope ` diamond would be able to conduct electrisity...

[Did Bloodline really say that jesus was more famous than the beatles?]



[cobalt = small cave troll]

[KennyR]

@blobrana

That's right, the metal impurities plug the conduction band, like doping a semiconductor.

Diamonds are also actually the best known conductor of heat. That's why they feel cold to the touch.

[blobrana]

Hum,
so i didn`t make it up... that`s good.

So now that that`s confirmed, i seem to recall that there was CPU chip designs that used Diamonds , because they could stand greater heat stresses (and heat transfer)...

No doubt when the current batch of pentium and athlon processors come up against that thermal barrier, we may actually see diamonds being used...





<blobrana increases kennyR`s intelligence score>


UPDATE:
Huh, found a link....<forget what i said, read this>

http://www.nature.com/nsu/nsu_pf/020902/020902-9.html

[cecilia]

really small diamond chips make good nail filers
:rtfm:

[bloodline]

[Did Bloodline really say that jesus was more famous than the beatles?]

No, Bloodline said Depeche Mode was more famous than Jesus and the Beatles put together!!! :-D

[sir_inferno]

Wayne wrote:
What I don't understand, and perhaps I'm missing something here, is that diamonds aren't even really that rare as to justify the price. There are much more rare rocks out there which are basically lining fish tanks world-wide.

Wayne



yep, most of the diamonds are in south africa, and a company (starts with Z i think...) buys out the rights to ALL diamond mines, and releases them slowly...




KennyR wrote:
You can also pump out diamonds in an industrial process.

Difference is - they're all imperfect. Imperfect diamonds are common. Nothing beats a real diamond from the ground with a professional cut (so DeBeers tells us). These things are definitely rare.


umm, actually, diamonds are created by putting some special aletrope of carbon into a container, and then putting it under extreme pressure. however this is hideously slow (one nanogram of diamond per hour) or something stupid like that, so they use a catalyst: Iron

That's why industrial diamonds have little value, as they have an orange tinge... :-)

[KennyR]

sir_inferno wrote:
That's why industrial diamonds have little value, as they have an orange tinge...

Yeah, contamination with nitrogen. Makes them look urine yellow. Not nice.