"Diamond Planet" Topic

Astronomers have found a planet that may be made of diamond:
link

Only 4,000 light years away, yours for the taking. Seems like an interesting scenario starter.

But, once we've developed way to get somewhere 4000 LY away won't we be at a point where we can make diamonds with our minds?

That's not a planet, that's Kim Kardashian's wedding ring.

But, once we've developed way to get somewhere 4000 LY away won't we be at a point where we can make diamonds with our minds?

Good point. Then again, I know some folks who are wrapped so tightly they can make diamonds out of coal with another part of their anatomy.

That's not a planet, that's Kim Kardashian's wedding ring.

Hahahahah!

But just for fun, yes, I think it's a really cool find. I'm still waiting for the "Outland" future of asteroid mining and whatnot.

Think of the gaming potential! Or the potential for a nuclear accident sending an asteroid in-bound toward Earth!

>Or the potential for a nuclear accident sending an asteroid in-bound toward Earth!

Or even better, a nuclear accident sending the Moon off cross the cosmo. Oh wait, that's been done.

It would be ironic if it was made of the crystalline matrix we need to travel faster than light…we just need to travel 4000LY to get it.

Some of the gaming ideas off the top of my head:
- planet to fight in space for
- funky location for stellar marines to fight over (what does a diamond planet do when a laser beam hits it?)
- planetary crystalline intelligence (didn't Star Trek do this?)
- giant planetary computer (I think ST did this too)
- diamond men for retro sci-fi
- if we can make diamonds with our minds, couldn't we make a bigger diamond if we have a diamond planet to focus our mental powers through?

"giant planetary computer (I think ST did this too)"

Don't know about Star Trek, but a PC game called UFO Aftershock, and it's sequel Aftermath, dealt with something similar. Some aliens came to Earth, wiped out a large portion of our population, then began to seed the world with biomass, which later was to turn our planet into a giant, self-aware biological computer that had psionic and psychic abilities. Unfortunately for the aliens, and most else on Earth, it woke up exactly long enough to think it was in danger and send out a psionic pulse and kill almost everyone and everything, including itself.

There's also a planet out there covered in metastable hydrogen which is a room temperature superconductor. Like the stuff that that company was after in the movie Avatar.

Or even better, a nuclear accident sending the Moon off cross the cosmo.

Or a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction!

what does a diamond planet do when a laser beam hits it?

I like where your head's at.

A tad much to expect a diamond planet to be cut and polished unless its in a ring system and constantly bombarded, don'tcha'think?:)

Would make a great penal colony-"Right, you incompetent thieves, scum and villainy! Pick up your gear and start cutting and polishing!"(Beats shoveling radium in the Mines of Mongo!).

Of course the guards are all women because diamonds are a girls' best friend!

A diamond that's five times the size of earth and yet it still didn't effect the high cost of diamonds here, go figure.
I would bet in time, it will being this kind of moment " What another diamond planet, Gees these things are everywhere. You know Bob, if we nudged it toward that sun over there, it would open up this new planned shipping lane going through here a lot more! Plus it could save some time on not having to plot around it as much, and you know what they say time is money!"

You know some poor sap is going to have to travel there for his bridezilla…..

Digging in will be a lot harder than normal.

Might be very useful for vehicle and personal armor.

Towing an entire planet across the lightyears is going to take a lot of effort, and give off bazzillions of carbon atoms (hmmm, wonder if those can somehow be captured and turned into diamonds too?).

Apparently, diamonds aren't as rare as the diamond cartel will have us believe…..

ummmm..not to KILL your ideas…but you do realize despite the DISTANCE, that 'diamond planet' USED to be the CORE of a star that got 'gobbled up' by the PULSAR next to it…(which sends out GINORMOUS blasts of HI-ENERGY RADIATION at almost lightspeed) and the fact that it's so dense/massive…the 'g-forces' anywhere near it would pulp you almost instantly…

Not that those sorta things couldn't be taken into account by some sci-fi writers…(like Dragon's Star/Dragon's Egg about LIFE on a WHITE DWARF!!!)

but how close is this thing to Eta Carinare(sp?) which is also 4000? light-years away and on verge of going 'boom' and taking a lot of stuff around it 'out' in the process!

Oh and didn't scientists say that Uranus or Neptune MIGHT have DIAMOND 'cores' or even huge diamonds forming in their lower atmospheres???

It'd be a LOT closer than 4K light-years, though you'd need some HIGH-TECH to beat the gravity and atmo pressure…

Just some aimless 'slishings'….(what if there are 'diamonds' out in the Oort Belt or Kuiper Belt….in cast off shards from super-novas far, far away…(like the stuff that 'condensed' to form the solar system is made from OTHER, 1st Generation stars???)

Sgt DWW-btod

There might be a diamond in Uranus? What is this, a prison flick?

"ummmm..not to KILL your ideas…but you do realize despite the DISTANCE, that 'diamond planet' USED to be the CORE of a star that got 'gobbled up' by the PULSAR next to it…(which sends out GINORMOUS blasts of HI-ENERGY RADIATION at almost lightspeed) and the fact that it's so dense/massive…the 'g-forces' anywhere near it would pulp you almost instantly…".

Details, details.

I doubt bridezilla will want to be bothered with those.

"It'd be a LOT closer than 4K light-years, though you'd need some HIGH-TECH to beat the gravity and atmo pressure…".

True, but bridezilla will be a lot more impressed if you go further in search of her diamond rock.

It is also bigger. This is important to bridezilla.

It'd make a fantastic scenery project, that's for sure. Probably quite expensive though (even if you were using clear acrylic*)

John T

*Though even more expensive if you were using actual diamonds. Obviously…

Just go the CZ route…….

It defies logic. Based how how scienctists say diamonds are formed, it seems improbably for a planet to be made out of them. Unless scientists are wrong in how diamonds are formed. But a find like this just devalued diamonds on a galactic scale. Next they'll say they found a planet made mostly of gold, think of the havoc that will create.

I wish they would find a planet made out of Common Sense, 'cause there ain't nearly enough of that going around!

As far as diamond planets go, Arthur C. Clarke has the core of Jupiter as a diamond in his novel, "2010".

Doesn't sound like Slartibartfast was involved with that one…

As far as diamond planets go, Arthur C. Clarke has the core of Jupiter as a diamond in his novel, "2010".

I got allota time for anything Arthur used to suggest so… Perhaps a diamond planet might be the core of a jovian style gas giant that was all that remained after the outer layers were stripped away by some catastrophe (passing black hole/exploding star that knocks the planet into orbit around something else etc etc).

John T

The news story suggests the diamond planet used to be a large star before the nearby pulsar stripped away its outer layers.

I have a lot of time for ACC's stuff up until sometime in the late 1980's, when things got a bit weird. I have an interview with him somewhere where he talks about mysterious energy breakthroughs coming any day.