Astronomers Spy Massive Diamond
It Weighs 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Carats
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040213203009990006 LOS ANGELES (Feb. 13) - If anyone's ever promised you the sun, the moon and the stars, tell 'em you'll settle for BPM 37093. The heart of that burned-out star with the no-nonsense name is a sparkling diamond that weighs a staggering 10 billion trillion trillion carats. That's one followed by 34 zeros.
The hunk of celestial bling is an estimated 2,500 miles across, said Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
''You would need a jeweler's loupe the size of the sun to grade this diamond,'' said Metcalfe, who led the team that discovered the gem.
The diamond is a massive chunk of crystallized carbon that lies about 300 trillion miles from Earth, in the constellation Centaurus.
The galaxy's largest diamond is formally known as a white dwarf, or the hot core of a dead sun.
Astronomers have suspected for decades that white dwarfs crystallized, but only recently were able to verify the hypothesis.
A paper detailing the discovery has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters for publication.
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Like I said, That's a big Rock.
Stephen
Topic: Now that's a big Rock. (Read 1843 times)