10 Billion-Trillion-Trillion-Carat Diamond Found in Space
(Rapaport…February 16, 2004) The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has announced the discovery of a mass of crystallized carbon formerly known as star BPM 37093, now known as the biggest diamond in the galaxy, fifty light years away from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. The diamond is estimated to be 2,500 miles across and weighs approximately 10 billion-trillion-trillion-carats – a one, followed by 34 zeros. Travis Metcalfe, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the team who discovered the gem, says “You would need a jeweler’s loupe the size of the sun to grade this diamond. Bill Gates and Donald Trump together couldn’t begin to afford it.”
When asked to estimate the value of the cosmic jewel, Ronald Winston, chief executive officer (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.”
The diamond is actually the crystallized interior of a white dwarf – or the hot core of a star that is 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 gasses.
Five billion years from now, our sun will die and become a white dwarf. Approximately two billion years after that, its ember core will crystallize as well, leaving a giant diamond in the center of our solar system. A paper announcing this discovery has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters for publication. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. Scientists within the organization are classified into six research divisions where they study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.
I am glad my wife doesn't know about this. She might say something along the lines of "If you get a new telescope, I get a new ring! What about that big diamond they are talking about?" And I then talk her into something less pretenious, say 2 or 3 carats and I spend the rest of my life paying for it and in the end, don't get that new telescope. Woe is me!
Now thats cool. Make every lady in the universe envious. Pitty that by the time you got there to break a small piece off and bring it back you would be 100 years older, that is if you travelled at the speed of light. Maybe a pressy for the grandchild otherwise?????
Woe is me!
