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Say you need a diamond. You could go down to the jeweler, or you could put some carbon deep underground and let it sit for a couple billion years. Or you could hop in a starship and cruise 4,000 light years over to a dead star called pulsar J1719-1438.
The pulsar is exotic on its own—it's a super-dense remnant of a star spinning at about 10,000 rpm. But far more curious is the world orbiting it, which might be called a planet if it weren't so strange.
It's about as massive as Jupiter, but much more compact. It may be the remains of a carbon-rich white dwarf star. But it's been mostly cannibalized by its pulsar companion, and is now just a shadow of its former self.
The object’s incredible density makes it subject to great internal pressure. And that pressure, acting on the carbon-rich makeup of the white dwarf, may have crystallized much of it to the particular form of carbon we call diamond. That's according to new research in the journal Science. [Citation to come.]
The next step for astronomers is to find out if the diamond planet has rings.
—John Matson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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21 Comments
Add CommentI understand Kim Kardashian would like
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis as her wedding ring.
Gosh, imagine how much coal would be worth on that planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDiamonds in the sky!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, "...may have crystallized much of it to the particular form of carbon we call diamond" translates into "Diamond World Discovered by Astronomers". I think Mr. Matson needs to revisit his dictionary to check the meaning of the word 'discover'. I'm pretty sure one of the definitions is not "speculation that something exists because the necessary physical conditions for its existence are present". Stay tuned for his next podcast titled "Life discovered on Europa", where he describes research indicating conditions on the Galilean satellite are favorable for some forms of microbial life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe this will be the holy grail that motivates the private sector to get going on space travel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDe Beers will kill you if you go near it.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUmmmm, you did read the part that it's "4,000 light years away"?!?
I suggest that since we are having trouble getting to the space station, that President Rick Perry propose a major new GOP/Tea effort to send a giant gold ring setting to glue to the new diamond planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis would fit well with the scientific views of those of the GOP/Tea persuasion. Then, we could sell the finalized ring, and pay off the national debt! I think somebody should suggest this to Rick, because so far he is looking like maybe he's a little dull in the head, and he needs a sparkling new vision of the future for us all!!!!!
Oh, and we should get started on a giant Bible a few parsecs across, to use when somebody gets married and uses the ring.
With Lucy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey should name this rock in the sky "Damonds are Us".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTred, you are a narly person.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey should build a resort on it and name it Planet Midnight. That is all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery good observation. Not many people read carefully what they read.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this*[Citation to come.]* WHEN?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere is the link:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/08/19/science.1208890.abstract
We also can have information in this link:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/08/scienceshot-diamond-planet-orbits.html?ref=hp
They should name the Pulsar "Lucy" so it would be Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the latest issue of Science 8/26/11 there is a report by Bailes et al describing the discovery and properties of a new pulsar-planet system, the third so far.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPulsar-planets were first discovered in 1992.
In 1989, in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics, vol. 28, No. 12, pp. 1503-1532, it was definitively predicted by a new paradigm called the self-similar cosmological paradigm (now referred to as Discrete Scale Relativity) that planetary-mass objects would be discovered orbiting stellar-mass ultracompact objects.
Discrete Scale Relativity was the only theory to ever definitively predict systems like pulsar-planets, explain how they form, and explain why they should not be unusually rare objects.
If you would like to read more about this definitive scientific prediction by Discrete Scale Relativity, see Selected Paper #4 at http://www3.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw , which was also published in IJTP.
It will be most interesting to see the more detailed properties of this system once further research is done on it, especially with the new Russian Spektr-R radio wave satellite that can be linked to Earth-based radio telescopes to give unprecedented resolution of radio sources, like a pulsar-planet system.
Game On!
RLO
Fractal Cosmology
Yes, De Beers is already claiming universal rights to the planet!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPaul Mattern: excellent post.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'd add, however, that the autor is usually not the headline writer. Scientific American editors often abandon the 'science' these edays in favor of sensationalism.
Jessica W, I would give you a whole galaxy of diamonds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLove you.
Tung
I'll give it all to Jessica W with love.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTung
August 2011
If this pulsar is emitting light just as a normal pulsar would, what happens to the light that passes through this so-called diamond planet. Are we able to detect it with every oribit? Is it magnified in intensity or speed in any way? And are we able to estimate how much longer it will be until it is fully consumed by the pulsar? thank you for your time, aloha.
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