Planet made of diamond: now that’s some serious bling!
4000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, astronomers have discovered a planet made of diamond.
Image Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions
The 3,106.75 carat Cullinan diamond is by far the largest ever discovered. Or, at least, it used to be. It seems that a much – MUCH – bigger diamond has now been found. The lucky owner of the new diamond is … nobody! That’s right, it’s as yet unclaimed and could be yours. All yours! But wait! There’s a problem: the rock is 4,000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens. Doh!
The big bling was found by a research team led by Professor Matthew Bailes Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and is actually a planet. According to the press release, this planet is estimated to be somewhat less than 60,000 km across, or about five times the size of the earth and was discovered during a pulsar survey using the 64-metre CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, 380 kilometres West of Sydney Australia.
The planet orbits a fast-spinning pulsar dubbed PSR J1719-1438 – an exceptionally dense object that has about 1.4 times the mass of our sun but is only 20 km across – and is thought to be the remnants of a white dwarf that was stripped down by the pulsar to less than 0.01% of its initial mass.
You may be wondering how the astronomers know the planet is a diamond. The answer, it seems, lies with the radio waves emitted by the pulsar. Bailes and his team noticed that the radio waves were modulated. By studying the modulations, the team was able to deduce that the planet:
- Is 600,000 km away from the pulsar and orbits it in a little over two hours.
- Is less than 60,000 km as, were it any bigger, it would be ripped apart by the pulsar’s gravity.
- Is dense – were it to consist of light elements, it would not orbit in such a short time – and therefore probably crystalline.
“This remnant is likely to be largely carbon and oxygen, because a star made of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium would be too big to fit the measured orbiting times,” said Dr. Michael Keith, one of the research team members.
While this is all very interesting, what I really want to know is … how can I reel this bad boy in? Who’s got an idea?
Imagine springing that on a woman when proposing marriage! LOL
too late I already gifted it
I here by claim this planet in the name of me! Don’t even think about touching it! Lol
Sorry Mr.Frosty! Not happening without a duel!!!! : )
How do they know what the crystalline structure is – could it just be a big chunk of graphite?
graphite isnt crystalline, although diamonds come from compressed graphite, it still isnt a crystal\
Exactly my question. Graphite and diamond are exactly the same except for molecular structure. And this core will have oxygen in it which seems to make both possibilities wrong.
This is the coolest thing I have read all day. Great discovery!!
How many carats would something that size represent (after polishing & cutting, of course)?
I guess that De Beers will be funding the space program so it can get dibs on this thing!!
4,000 light years means that a ray of light, traveling at 186,000 miles a second, takes 4,000 years to reach earth. So what they are seeing now is what the planet was like 4,000 years ago, It might not be there now! :)
stolen by afroaliens..
bryan – not a bit funny,you are sick
Bryan – Perfectly factual and hilarious reference, you are awesome.
It isn’t there. I took it. I have it hiding in my basement. Imagine how surprised they’ll be when they find out it’s gone. (lol)
dibs on the diamond planet…sorry guys you had your chance
Since my wife read that news about that big piece of Diamond in the space is not belonging to any one..she is sooo mad at me and asking me to get that down for her…i don’t know what to do?????
get a tall ladder.
Get another wife!!
win
what do you mean when you say less then 60,000km??? Do you mean radius or diameter it makes a difference :p
If you noticed, the writer said “across”. What part didn’t you understand?
What both of you didn’t understand, is size DOES matter!
Propose the speed of light, then triple that. have a devise that can travel triple the speed of light, to jet to the diamond planet. have the devise work in outerspace by bouncing solar waves of of nearby suns and other bright celestrial objects to catch other bright/ or solar waves to work from and to catch up and store solar energy to propel you, or your mechanical devise to the said planet to gather the rich material to bring home and sell on the open market for an exausting amout. ( it might work)
r you for real?if that were possible?which it isint dont you think the greatest of minds wouldnt have figured that out?thats just the logical end,as well man hasent even got to light speed yet,remember x=mC2 or dosent that apply??what a woody,trying to be smart and da
LOL. I don’t think curt gets it.
Just for the record, if you are referring to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity where he realized that matter and energy are really different forms of the same thing, the equation is: E=mc2
E=mc2 and X=mc2 are technically the same thing, you can use any variable, so it could even be G=si2
E = Energy
MC = Mass Conserved
Brian c=speed of light (in a vacuum)
Hey Astro-girl
Ever think of the oil rich Barens, looking for a way out? They’ll be there before we get close. They already know an alternative to gas for motivation, this might be it.Love our literary composition,make a novel of it.
If they brought back the planet in chunks eventually diamonds wouldn’t be as rare anymore and their value would be useless. now if we found a planet of oil, that i could see being profitable.
I was just about to make this point. Thanks for doing it for me :P
what? was there proper spelling in there? how can something go triple the speed of light? why do you need the light from other suns? there’s intense radiation from the pulsar. Please learn how to spell
Diamond in the rough. Let’s refine it, any one!
Are those real comments? They seem like fake comments posted by the people who know the person who wrote this blog entry just to do as if it were interesting…
LOL, a comment about fake comments from a commenter called “Netbot”. +1 for you.
Call in Harry Stanford (Bruce Willis) and driller pals!
You are a s**t disturber!
Aliens are more than likely mining it.
AWHH, I want a diamond planet! LOL That’s so cool though
A big diamond planet about 6ooo kilometers away from earth. It will take
80 hrs of space flight to get there by space craft. To cut it and bring it in small pieces will take one or two days on the planet and it will take several days to bring all the diamonds from pulsar planet. God knows if anyone will come back safely with these diamonds on the earth. Hope for the best and take help from advanced diamond technology in space. Do not bring very heavy diamond material from space otherwise space craft will be damaged
and disintegrated in space. The challenge is for USA, USSR and other nations who can go in the space. Good LUCK to human race.
Mano
there’s no way it takes 8 hours to travel 4,000 light years. a light year is approximately 6 trillion km, the fastest ship man kind has is 57, 600 kph, and that’s just an un-manned space probe. so, in essence, it would take several life times to get even half way there, get your facts straight bud, im 15 years old btw :p
Thats what she said after the fact.. She is 15.. With a cave to fit this planet.
Kaileb, bud, read the first line again:
“A big diamond planet about 6ooo kilometers away from earth. It will take 80 hrs of space flight to get there by space craft.”
Mano used a hypothetical number to show how much co-operation it would require from world leaders (which based on Earth’s worldwide situation is ruled by greed and politics, so we’re all doomed anyhow). Moral of the story, Mr “I’m 15″? Think you might need to brush up on your reading skills before posting hostile commentary on a public forum.
No Jer, Mano wasn’t using hypothetical numbers to show anything. He was posting complete crap (read his numbers they don’t even make sense… 80 hours to travel 6,000 km? WTF??) and for some reason you decided to jump on the 15 yr old who called him out. Choose your sides more carefully. Y’know, so you don’t end up looking like a douche.
Mano also said that the challenge is for the USSR. I doubt that they will accomplish this task as the country no longer exists. His post is complete crap
You’re an idiot. They said it was 4,000 light years away. We will never be able to reach in our lifetime. This diamond planet is roughly 37,842,113,600,000,000,000 (that’s 37 quintillion, 842 quadrillion, 113 trillion, 600 billion kilometers away from earth. That’s like going from earth to the moon and back 49,222,312,174,817 times.
You got ALL the numbers TOTALLY mixed up buddy… Sorry :(
We don’t know exactly how far is the pulsar planet from earth
and how many days it will take to reach there. The fast speed of rocket is about 60,000 kilometers per hour. So calculate the distance and time to reach there.
Who knows—it could be just cubic zirconia !!! Oh well, I’d still take it !!!!
best comment i’ve read on here so far! :)
to answer questions about is it really diamond,
Carbon plus unlimited pressure = diamonds
since nothing bigger than carbon or oxygen can survive 2 light seconds from a pulsar, we can grantee you there will be no graphite, as there are no polymers in that planet, only solidified gasses.
problem is, we also cannot get two light seconds from that star as we are only about 9% carbon, 30% oxygen, the rest of us would be vaporized into simple atoms, and then crushed into diamonds…
as such, i say we build a neutron star and ride its ultra gravity pulses out to the planet!
“The big bling was found by a research team led by Professor Matthew Bailes Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne” I guess you must have higher credentials then these people. Why can’t people just read an article without nit-picking everything written. You really got to get a life.
Fact #3 does not have any basis in fact. A planet’s mass or density have no effect on how quickly it orbits. Period of revolution is dependent only on its orbital parameters and not its physical parameters. Even if it is made of carbon and is mostly crystalline, that does NOT make it diamond. Plus it is so close to the pulsar that it would be very hot and probably molten. By comparison, Mercury is about 61 million kms away from our sun which is about 5600 Celsius degrees. This planet is ten times closer than that to its star, and pulsars are typically 50K Celsius and higher. So its probably molten and not crystalline. Not that diamonds need to be crystalline, but apparently the author of this article doesn’t know what she is saying. Question everything!!
your right my friend, nasa has held alot back from us and well told us stuff that they eventually gone back on. now having said that we need to question everything and seriously diamonds f*** off please, oh look an ice cream moon around pluto i think this persons been watching to much rob the robot (google it)
Man, Richard, you are so dumb. Firstly, Sympatico/sync-blog isn’t a very good source for this type of news. They dumb it down stupendously. Secondly, I rarely ever see any Space organization confirm things. Because they can not. That’s not their fault though. So if data about space changes, drastically or not, don’t be so stupid about it. They can only observe from afar.
If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at our media. They twist and reword the facts, creating false controversy or creating an unfounded lack of confidence.
To the other guy, actually, density does make a difference in orbit. When they galaxy is created, denser planets stay closer to the sun, hence why all of our gas giants are far away. Also, remember the properties of the star is different than our own.
NOT DIAMOND???My dreams were shattered, I supposed if we can explore it, so that every body can get their fair(not sure)share when it landed.
So can we drop the price of diamonds now? pretty cool, i’d like photos!
Well now. I have a feeling we will find a way to get to this planet and “bleed it dry” like we have done to this planet.
that is totally true. I agree, being the selfish, greedy humans that we are…
You said it! Our greedy society will most definitely try to find a way to get it’s hand on it. I am embarassed…
Agreed, the blight on earth is the human.
Agreed, and it’s not like that same greed has enabled the computers you’re using to bitch about it or anything….
Amen to that, we are a rancid species.
we will find a way to get to it, mine it untill nothing is left, and the price of dimonds will be dirt cheap.
Bang on! You hit the nail on the head.
Look at it this way:
If we make it that far at least our greedy nature will have then found us a way into interstellar space!
Maybe another of the Kardashians can buy this one for their little finger as well.
It is a shamefull act that while an on going recession is threatening American families one individual has the odasity to wear a single piece of jewellry that could feed, clothe, provide shelter, health care or education to.
Way to go Kim Kardashian!
Way to go to all who support these no names by watching their self marketing self promoting crap!
Without the buyers there would be no Kardashians and the likes of them… When will people stop buying mediocrity and start thinking about saving the planet…??
Oh, do tell…what have you done lately to save the planet…besides moan and groan about it, I mean.
Solomia, I agree, our planet is worth so much. We only have to appreciate it and stop being so dumb as to fall to the idiotic ways of the wealthy. Loosers, making us pay for it.
You really don’t know how the world works, do you?
None of us will be around by the time we figure out the whole problem, however i believe that the aliens have the techno to zip around the planets and if they care they could help us out, ha ha ha!