The astronomers have discovered a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats in the space. The huge cosmic diamond consists of crystallised carbon, 4,000km diameter, and it is in the constellation Centaurus – 50 light-years from the Earth.
The astronomers called the star "Lucy" on the Beatles song – "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The largest diamond ever found is not on Earth, but faraway across the galaxy.
The leader of the researchers is Travis Metcalfe, astronomer of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. His discovery completely outclasses the largest diamond on the Earth – the 546 carats Golden Jubilee which was cut from a stone brought out of the Premier mine in South Africa.
The giant cosmic diamond is known technically as BMP 37093. Actually it is a crystallised white dwarf, which is the hot core of the star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies.
Even that the astronomers have thought more than 40 years that the interiors of the white dwarfs crystallised, finally now is possible to obtain direct evidence. Except that the white dwarf is radiant, it also rings like gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsation. |
