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Artist impression of the white dwarf star. Image by B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF).
Scientists have identified an 11 billion year-old diamond 900 light-years away from our home planet, one of oldest ever found by astronomers, which is said to be the size of Earth.
The diamond- star, described in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, is one of the coldest white dwarfs researchers have discovered. In fact, it’s so cool and dim that it can’t even be seen in the overwhelming vastness of space. Even if we were able to get closer, experts still say we wouldn’t be able to see it.
But they were able to deduce the massive diamond’s presence by the way its gravity disturbs steady radio pulses coming from a spinning companion star.
A field of ancient white dwarf stars, spied by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. (NASA/H.Richer)
“It’s a really remarkable object,” study leader David Kaplan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). “These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find.”
When talking about stellar objects, “cold” is a relative term; this white dwarf is still burning at 2,700 degrees Celsius (4,892 degrees Fahrenheit), but that’s 5,000 times cooler than the centre of our planet’s sun.
This isn’t the first time scientists have found a large space diamond. In 2012, researchers discovered a planet roughly the size of two Earths that was made primarily of diamond. This one, however, is pure cut—a gleaming crystallized white dwarf just sitting out there in space.
7 Comments
woodboz
Let me get this straight – this thing “disturbs steady radio pulses coming from a spinning companion star.” and “it can’t even be seen in the overwhelming vastness of space.” From that, they have been able to deduce that it is 4,892 degrees F, 11 billion years old, 900 light years away, about the size of earth, and by the way, it’s made of solid diamond. Uh huh. And carbon dioxide is going to kill us all!
Neo-neo
Dear Mr. Woodboz- Please, don’t leave us hanging; what is the true truth of the matter?
SAM253
sounds like one heck of a fish story
kriyuk
Wow
CWK
Aren’t space objects made of cheese? If not, why are we going there?
wally
NewsFlash:
Alien living on cloaked InterGalactic space station of Gargantuan proportions which draws its energy directly from the universe, hears a local news story about how some jokers on a planet called Earth somewhere in the outer reaches of nowhere, consider that the very space station he lives on (along with 134 billion others) must be a giant diamond, prize for guessing what a diamond is!
Finding this incredibly amusing he laughs so much he drops the fuel cell filter he is working on and to cut a long story short KAABOOOM.
The resulting explosion will not be seen by the jokers for a very long time.
NewsFlash: Bridge for sale.
Ernie DeLong
I’m a bit loath to join a conversation where the apparent combined IQ of those commenting does not attain a minimal passing grade. For those of you who either don’t understand scientific research or much less comprehend it, I suggest you simple continue watching TV and talking on your iPhone because I’m certain you also realize these two gadgets have nothing to so with science! For these folks I might also suggest you may wish to tie a small piece of string on your belt loop … it just may help you from falling over the edge of the world someday!