Author Topic: Cold Star Giant Diamond?  (Read 1697 times)

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Offline markc

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Cold Star Giant Diamond?
« on: June 25, 2014, 07:38:53 AM »
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/06/24/cold-dead-star-may-be-giant-diamond/?intcmp=features


Next time a girl asks you for a cool diamond I hope this story will bring a smile to your face. 
MDC
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Cold Star Giant Diamond?
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2014, 12:36:34 PM »
I saw that too.  It would be interesting for mankind to manage to mine something like that somehow.  We'd have diamond windows, diamond drinking glasses, car windshields, etc.
- Cory Magel

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Offline arakish

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Re: Cold Star Giant Diamond?
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2014, 04:00:51 PM »
And the only problem is that the universe is not old enough (as far as we have been able to determine) for a white dwarf to cool down enough to see if its interior would be a gigantic diamond.  Arthur C. Clarke hypothesized about this back in early 70s in one of his essays.  I no longer possess the anthology book that had that essay, but I remember reading it about the same time I was reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as it was being published here in the US back in the early 70s.  He even wrote about the same thing happening in jovian planets like Jupiter in last Space Odyssey novel with a large diamond impacted on Europa after Jupiter blew up.

It is theorized it would take a white dwarf about 15 to 25 billion years to cool down.  Currently, as far as I know, the universe is only 14 billion years old.

But it would be kewl to find one and mine it.  Diamonds may become as cheap as glass, but mankind's population would be phenomenal by then also.  Perhaps at least in the tens or hundreds of trillions, if not quadrillions.

rmfr
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Cold Star Giant Diamond?
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2014, 08:46:19 PM »
...but mankind's population would be phenomenal by then also.  Perhaps at least in the tens or hundreds of trillions, if not quadrillions.
Doh.  I didn't even consider that.  Yeah, by the time we could get to one we probably wouldn't be very interested anymore... or who knows, maybe diamond dust would be the next fuel source! :)
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
(Channeling Companion, RMQ 1 & 2, and various Guild Companion articles author).

"The only thing I know about adults is that they are obsolete children." - Dr Seuss

Offline arakish

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Re: Cold Star Giant Diamond?
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2014, 09:53:38 PM »
... or who knows, maybe diamond dust would be the next fuel source! :)

Now that would make diamonds priceless.

rmfr
"Beware those who would deny you access to information, for they already dream themselves your master."
— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.