The Galaxy's Largest Diamond - 10 billion trillion trillion carats

Analog

Lifer
Jan 7, 2002
12,755
3
0
This Valentine's Day, Give The Woman Who Has Everything The Galaxy's Largest Diamond
Cambridge, MA -- When choosing a Valentine's Day gift for a wife or girlfriend, you can't go wrong with diamonds. If you really want to impress your favorite lady this Valentine's Day, get her the galaxy's largest diamond. But you'd better carry a deep wallet, because this 10 billion trillion trillion carat monster has a cost that's literally astronomical!

"You would need a jeweler's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!" says astronomer Travis Metcalfe (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who leads a team of researchers that discovered the giant gem. "Bill Gates and Donald Trump together couldn't begin to afford it."

When asked to estimate the value of the cosmic jewel, Ronald Winston, CEO of Harry Winston Inc., indicated that such a large diamond probably would depress the value of the market, stating, "Who knows? It may be a self-deflating prophecy because there is so much of it." He added, "It is definitely too big to wear!"

The newly discovered cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.) It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros.

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Descartes

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
13,968
2
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I couldn't find its magnitude listed anywhere, so I isolate its position in my astronomy software; not surprisingly, there's nothing there on my maps. See for yourself (in the red circle, approximately).
 

Analog

Lifer
Jan 7, 2002
12,755
3
0
Originally posted by: Descartes
I couldn't find its magnitude listed anywhere, so I isolate its position in my astronomy software; not surprisingly, there's nothing there on my maps. See for yourself (in the red circle, approximately).

Neat stuff. What software is that?
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Mind boggling... :Q

What if something like that came crashing to the surface? :D

Even if it was only a couple of palm sized chunks when it hit the ground, it would be a pretty cool find. ;)
 

911paramedic

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2002
9,448
1
76
"It is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds"

Anybody up for a little trip?
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
5 million trillion trillion pounds.... that should be 5x10^30 pounds, scientific notation format. And 2500 miles wide. (Why didn't they report in metric???)
Jupiter's mass is 4.18591697 × 10^27 pounds. 88,846 miles in diameter. So it weighs what, over 1000 times what Jupiter weighs.

What if something like that came crashing to the surface?
Heh...Earth would be drawn to the diamond. End result - a diamond, with some moons and a ring system, which would have been Earth.:Q
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Originally posted by: Muadib
This must be one of the reasons money isn't the same in star trek.

Yeah - need gold? Replicate it.
One episode they mentioned it - Quark thought he'd gotten gold-pressed-latinum (the latinum's the valuable stuff). "It's just gold! Worthless gold!"
 

XZeroII

Lifer
Jun 30, 2001
12,572
0
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Yea, I got one of those for her last year. The problem was finding a way to top it this year :(
 

nater

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
3,135
0
0
DeBeers probably has that much dimaond stockpiled away somewhere already