Diamond Planet

[Charles Pegge]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/astronomers-discover-planet-made-diamond-014913051.html

[danbaron]

I read that Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is sending an expedition to capture the planet, and to tow it into orbit around the Earth.

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[ErosOlmi]

Getting it close to hearth would be the simplest part.
How to break it into smaller pieces in such a way it can be useful to something?

:D

[Charles Pegge]

Exactly How many carats is this planetary diamond?

Charles

[danbaron]

The cut is a truncated icosahedron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron

So, it has 12 regular pentagonal facets, and 20 regular hexagonal facets.

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"The measurements suggest the planet, which orbits its star every two hours and 10 minutes, has slightly more mass than Jupiter but is 20 times as dense, Bailes and colleagues reported in the journal Science on Thursday."

The mass of Jupiter is approximately, 1.8986*10^27 kg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_mass

One carat equals 2*10^(-4) kilograms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carat_%28mass%29

So, the diamond is larger than,

1.8986*10^27 / 2*10^(-4) = 9.493*10^30 carats.

As far as I can tell, the largest cut diamond on Earth, is 546 carats (as you know, the Golden Jubilee Diamond).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diamonds

So, I think Eros is right, it would have to be cut again (but, it does seem a pity to ruin something so beautiful, only because it is too big).

To cut it, I think you would first land a jeweler on its surface. I think he could break it with a hammer and chisel, because diamonds are brittle along their cleavage planes. But, probably it would take him a long time to make much progress.

[Charles Pegge]

Thanks Dan.

The article says this planet has a similar density to Platinum (19,816 kg/m3), but the density of diamond is only 3,520 kg/m3. Something doesn't add up. Why not a Platinum planet?

Densities in our solor system:

1 Earth 5515
2 Mercury 5427
3 Venus 5243
4 Mars 3933
5 Moon 3350
6 Pluto 1750
7 Neptune 1638
8 Sun 1408
9 Jupiter 1326
10 Uranus 1270
11 Saturn 687



http://www.smartconversion.com/otherInfo/Density_of_planets_and_the_Sun.aspx



Charles

[danbaron]

(The more you read about the other planets in this solar system, the more you realize that compared to Earth, they are all junk (in my opinion). I still say that other than providing protection for Earth from asteroid collisions, the gas giants are useless.)

According to the article, I think the density is secondary. Somehow, they first determined the planet is made of carbon. Then, due to its mass, they decided the carbon must be in diamond form.

I see what you mean concerning the density.

I can't say that I am sure what is going on.

But, the Sun's core is made of hydrogen gas and helium gas, and is 150 times as dense as liquid water. It doesn't seem possible, but, apparently it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_core

My guess is that the density given for diamonds is for at the Earth's surface.

I guess it could be that when a diamond is squeezed, it remains a diamond, but the carbon atoms in the lattice become much closer together than they would like to be. You could imagine a 3D lattice of spheres, connected in the x, y, and z directions by springs.

If you think about it, what can a carbon atom do if it is being equally squeezed in all directions? Probably, it can't shrink to zero, right? But whether the crystal configuration remains stable under huge pressures, who knows? Would the lattice collapse, and all of the carbon atoms become packed together like a box filled with ball bearings? Someone knows, but, it isn't me.

(I'm just guessing.)