Ever wondered what the biggest diamond known to science is? The Hope Diamond (45.52 carats)? The Star of Africa or Cullinan I Diamond (3,106.75 carats uncut) How about BPM 37093, nicknamed “Lucy”, after the Beatles song at ten billion trillion trillion carats?
That’s a “one” followed by 34 zeros. Since a carat is equivalent to 200 mg, “Lucy” weighs about five million trillion trillion pounds.
Lucy is a very long way from Earth however.
Lucy is the heart of a variable white dwarf star in the constellation Centaurus. BPM 37093 is 50 light years from Earth, situated roughly above Australia. Measuring 2,500 miles across, and with a mass 1.1 times that of the sun, Lucy is believed to be the largest diamond in the universe.
Of course, all white dwarf stars are now believed to have a core of crystallized carbon (diamond). Our own sun will eventually turn into a white dwarf star, with a diamond core like that of BPM 37093. It just won’t be as massive.
Formed in only two conditions on Earth; in extreme pressure and heat (1650-2370 degrees F) deep within the Earth and at the site of a meteor strike, diamonds have long been known to come to us from the stars. Now we know that some of them actually were stars.
Cool fact
The reason a diamond sparkles so much is because the angle at which light is bent as it emerges from the stone is very large. If the diamond is cut correctly a lot of light gets trapped inside the stone and emerges only out of certain faces — giving it that sparkle
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment