Surprise! Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered

[Feuer Frei!]

This illustration shows the alien planet around pulsar PSR J1719-1438, where ultra-high pressures caused carbon to crystallize in the remnant of a dead star. The planet is made of diamond and orbits a dense pulsing star with a radius smaller than that of our sun.
CREDIT: Swinburne Astronomy Productions


A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough.
The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests.
The composition of the planet, which is about five times the size of Earth, is not its only outstanding feature. [Illustration of the diamond alien planet]


The planet's parent star is a special kind of flashing star known as a millisecond pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star formed from a supernova. The entire system, which is only the second of its kind ever discovered, is located about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Serpens (The Snake).


SOURCE

[Stealhead]

De Beers will want to mine it.

[Randomizer]

Back in the 1970's Arthur C. Clarke in his novel 2010 posited that the centre of the planet Jupiter was solid diamond due to pressure and temperature acting on carbon in the core.

[Torplexed]

I think I've seen those things for sale at Spencer's Gifts.

[Anthony W.]

I would like to, informally, formally, politically, and internationally, call dibbs.

And I shall call it planet "WOAHIMRICH"

[Castout]

Posted this elsewhere but let me post it here too,


You see the diamond planet is much bigger than the size of our planet(slightly bigger mass than Jupiter but a lot denser). Precious metals and precious stones are precious because they are RARE. Had they been available in abundance they would have ceased being precious . . . .

They would be as beautiful but simply junk in monetary value.
That tells a lot about us doesn't it?

[Feuer Frei!]

This would be THE perfect planet for women...................(get it)?


And me.

Build a nice little space station on it and away I go.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Castout

Posted this elsewhere but let me post it here too,


You see the diamond planet is much bigger than the size of our planet(slightly bigger mass than Jupiter but a lot denser). Precious metals and precious stones are precious because they are RARE. Had they been available in abundance they would have ceased being precious . . . .

They would be as beautiful but simply junk in monetary value.
That tells a lot about us doesn't it?

Funny thing about diamonds is that they are not rare, they are just hard to get a hold of since De Beers owns all the mines. Plus you can grow diamonds if you want. The price is artificially high because everyone wants pretty stones and only one owns them.

[Stealhead]

Now guys can save money on engagement rings they can simply propose at night under the stars point at the planets location and say "My love for you is so strong that no earthly diamond is worthy so I give you a planet that is a diamond."

[Castout]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Funny thing about diamonds is that they are not rare, they are just hard to get a hold of since De Beers owns all the mines. Plus you can grow diamonds if you want. The price is artificially high because everyone wants pretty stones and only one owns them.

Not really if diamonds were as available as the dirt their monetary value would be junk. And even if they were as beautiful nobody would pay high prices for them and they would cease being status symbol and became much less desirable.

They are rare.

[Betonov]

Diamonds would never be cheap as dirt even in abundance though. They ireplacable in inudstry

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Betonov

Diamonds would never be cheap as dirt even in abundance though. They ireplacable in inudstry

Not exactly, they would be as cheap as clay or the sands. Of course most people find it hard to imagine diamonds being as cheap as clay because they are not and they are not because they are rare.

Ancient people would find paying for clean water outrageous. But today we pay for our drinking water and clean water. They have become more precious (scarce) than they used too.

[Platapus]

What exactly is an "alien planet"???

Would not any planet not the Earth be an alien planet, from our prespective? In that case, just using the word planet should suffice.

It seems excessively superfluous, redundant, verbose, and tautologically wordy.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Castout

Not really if diamonds were as available as the dirt their monetary value would be junk. And even if they were as beautiful nobody would pay high prices for them and they would cease being status symbol and became much less desirable.

They are rare.

They were rare, then they found tons in South Africa. Diamond sellers banded together and bought all the diamond mines, limited supply and began marketing "Diamonds as a girl's best friend" and other BS. They formed a cartel: De Beers. The cartel is not as powerful as it once was since other diamond corporations have sprung up in the last decade, but the owners of De Beers still can't come to US shores because of the threat of arrest on monopoly charges and price fixing.

Diamonds are now heading towards their natural prices. They are not rare, but they are "uncommon".

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Castout

Not really if diamonds were as available as the dirt their monetary value would be junk. And even if they were as beautiful nobody would pay high prices for them and they would cease being status symbol and became much less desirable.

They are rare.

Rare? 26,000 kg are mined every year, which is about 25 tons, which is not much compared to just about anything else that's mined, but in diamond term it's 130 million carats. That's a lot of rings, and hardly rare.

Diamonds are the hardest natural element, and that counts for something, but the fact that we us diamonds for rings at all is solely due to a brilliant advertising campaign by the De Beers company, and its success is due to P.T. Barnum's observation, "There's a sucker born every minute."

As for the high prices, they have been artificially controlled by De Beers since that conglomerate has been in existence.
http://www.halfsigma.com/2006/11/the_diamond_sca.html