A cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon

[iyah360]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm

Diamond star thrills astronomers

Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.
The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 1,500 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy," after the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Lucy in the sky

"You would need a jeweller's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!" says astronomer Travis Metcalfe of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a measly 3,100-carat gem.

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

For more than four decades, astronomers have thought that the interiors of white dwarfs crystallised, but obtaining direct evidence became possible only recently.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

"By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of our Solar System.

"Our Sun will become a diamond that truly is forever," says Metcalfe.

[ptaured7]

Ptaured7 again:  Interesting you should post this.  As a part time student of physics and astronomy I learned of White Dwarf diamond cores about 20 years ago (the theory that is)  I wrote a science fiction novel many years ago using such an object as a theme, it was such an elegant and beautiful image.  Now comes Electric Universe theory.  I have been having an e-discussion with Wal Thornburg, a plasma physicist and proponent of elctric universe theory.  check out on google and www.holoscience.com to learn more.  

Major and respected scientists in a number of fields including astr-physics are challenging just about all the assumptions of Einstein et al and one area is super dense objects, black holes and theories of gravity.  They claim that these objects, such as white dwarf cores, are only theories invented to accomadate an ever weakening theory of star and planet formation, etc.

Recently, an  international cadre of such respected people signed an open letter to open up the field of physics for research into Electric Universe theory.  I think you will find it fascinating reading material and good fuel for this page!  What a shame for my story though......I used the theory to postulate a great space ship måde from such an object called a "White Dwarf Core Ship" 20 years ago when I first began writing the novel.  The electric universe theory, by the way, incorporates a variety of integrated fields of research, inlcuding ancient history, myth and legend of great interest to students of African history and culture .