Scientists find a diamond in the skies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...19.stm?Awesome

All I can say is, wow. Now I wonder how long it'll be before jewelry makers try to capitalize on this thing lol.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Very long, I guarantee you.

If you figure that in to the total supply of diamonds on Earth, assuming gem quality stones here, I think value of diamonds will become worthless. Unless DeBeers has anything to say for that matter.

However, I doubt we'll be pushing for interstellar flight even if diamond magnates are pushing to tap into this great resource (although I think the gravity alone on white dwarf stars is enough to prevent any meaningful mining of them for resources).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Dullenplain

Very long, I guarantee you.

Agreed.

Since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light and the diamond is fifty light years away, it will require colossal amounts of time to develop technology that can travel near the speed of light for fifty straight years.

Anyway, back to the topic, the diamond sounds amazing (ten billion trillion trillion carats?), but it isn't all that practical to go after such a development. Although, it is interesting that scientists can measure the interstellar diamond based on its pulsating behavior.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Seems a bit impractical to even think about going after it, given that there's already a process to develop man-made diamonds. If we need diamonds that badly, we can make them ourselves.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

1034 carats? Yeah, I'd say that would run the price of diamonds down a scoche (sp?).

That's ten decillion carats. That's 10000000000000000000000000000000000 carats. That's SILLY.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It is 50 light years away so we aren't getting there anytime soon if at all.

and it is funny saying that because in terms of space 50 light years is absolutely nothing.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, we suck at space travel. =(

Isn't the farthest man-made craft Voyager 1? It just recently passed the termination shock and is in the heliosheath of our solar system. I don't remember how far that is, but it's not that far in terms of space travel. =(

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Yamamanama

Technically, it isn't forever, since we have the possibility that protons have a half-life to , and even if they didn't, the universe favors iron for reasons relating to quantum tunneling and binding energy, but, whatever. It's not like the universe will be suited to all but the most hardy life forms (cockroaches) by the time the diamond is gone.

Yeah, Diamonds aren't forever. BUt I think their half-life is so great that it's like a millenia. The only thing that I could think of that we would use pure diamnonds for that they would go and try get it is if we discover space travel with pure diamonds and Faux ones don't work. Thus the government tries to harvest is. BUt I don't see that happening.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

You can make synthetic diamonds, and natural diamonds are only so expensive because DeBeers monopolises and constricts the supply. You might as well mention that nebula that contains billions of tons of alcohol. Just as hard to reach and just as useless.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

And somewhere out there, a giant green lizard protects a particular point in space, knowing the world is not yet ready for unlimited SoBe.

I want to say something on topic here now, but after reading Yama's post he knocked me into lolies.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Does anyone else find it poignant that long after we die into nothing but vaporized ash and space dust, the collective suns of our galaxies are all destined to die and fill the sky with the most radiant diamonds in the known universe which can never be touched or approached, but only gazed at by those in space who will succeed us?

Perhaps that's the artist in me talking, but that almost seems sad and kind of poetic...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I am not surprised to see people thinking of the economic gain to be had here. It seems to be the driving force behind a lot of the advancements we have made in this world. Its interesting to see that somethings that occur on this planet happen in different places in the galaxy.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Truly this universe is full of mysteries, this is just another example.

I'm quite ashamed that our space program hasn't advanced much.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by S3 2007

Truly this universe is full of mysteries, this is just another example.

I'm quite ashamed that our space program hasn't advanced much.

Thank our wonderful government for that as it currently doesn't think that space exploration is a financial priority.

Quote:

Originally posted by Harry Mason
And somewhere out there, a giant green lizard protects a particular point in space, knowing the world is not yet ready for unlimited SoBe.

Ya know, considering some of the scientific theories that exist today, I'd say this is a somewhat reasonable hypothesis!

How ya doing, buddy?

So, I will reveal my potential ignorance now. Why should we waste money on Space Programs when we should be investing on what we have here? Is it because, deep down, we know Earth can't handle us much longer and we need to colonize someplace new for the future? Is it to improve our own planet? Or is it really just about curiosity?

FELIPE NO

That's not ignorance, it's just common sense to invest money in real and present problems we have now than in the space program. Sure, the space program does create spinoffs that we can sometimes use in our daily lives but that isn't common. I think air travel will benefit the most from current research through joint ventures between the Japanese/Australians/USA into scramjet technology.

Having an active space-program was mostly just a very expensive pissing contest during the Cold War; it isn't as necessary anymore to try and send send men to Mars or back to the Moon. Research is still very important though for the economy, especially because asian countries are catching up at a phenomenal rate.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Harry Mason

So, I will reveal my potential ignorance now. Why should we waste money on Space Programs when we should be investing on what we have here? Is it because, deep down, we know Earth can't handle us much longer and we need to colonize someplace new for the future? Is it to improve our own planet? Or is it really just about curiosity?

"There are lots of hungry people in the world, Mallory, and none of them are hungry because we went to the moon. None of them are colder and certainly none of them are dumber because we went to the moon."
"And we went to the moon. Do we really have to go to Mars?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it's next. Because we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill and we saw fire; and we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the west, and we took to the sky. The history of man is on a timeline of explorations and this is What's next."

I dunno, I think if you want to talk about wasting money, you should be looking at the army instead. The budget of NASA is less than 5% of what the US military budget is. I don't think money spent on science is ever ''wasted'', be it space exploration or anything else.

It's not that Earth can't handle us for much longer -- I'm sure it can, unless we nuke it ourselves -- but sooner or later humanity will have to move on, or become extinct. Well, the Sun becoming a red giant is pretty far off, but there are more real concerns like impact events (asteroids, meteroids, comets) or a gamma ray burst, or other shit. The probability of such events is statistically very small, but sooner or later something like that will happen, and if our only concern until that will have been ''what's here'', it will already be much too late.

That's just the practical aspect of ensuring the survival of humanity. There's also the thing about astronomy being insanely interesting. You can say that it's ''just'' curiosity, but curiousity is what got us out of the caves.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Better to start now and be able to act when something is going to go wrong than wait untill just before death is knocking on your door, and not having the technology or knowledge to save yourself because you didn't take those first steps long ago.

Which seems to be a problem with Humanity. We don't do anything untill something extreme forces us to and by then it's too late. Way too many examples of this in everything we do.

Going to the moon or mars and exploring further out is the first step in securing our future. We live in a very dangerous place despite what people like to believe. I mean, the sun could decide to get pissy and spout off a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) our way and send humanity back to the 1900s for years. A rock, even a minor one, could smack into us and cause alot of problems. One could be on its way to ram into us and only give us a week or so warning. Since, you know, only a small portion of our sky is watched. You can't even see comets untill the sun starts melting them. If one of those decides to head our way we would have very little time to react. If you want events that happen much closer to home you could have a Super volcano go off and pretty much destroy much of our food production abillity. Events like these three happen. It's not a matter of if they will happen it's a matter of when.

Go much further into our future and you have the sun dieing, the moon drifting far enough away to wreak havoc on our enviroment and weather patterns, the Milky Way colliding with Andromeda, and so on. Though that's so far in the future if we were not in space by then we would be extinct...

I would feel much more secure knowing some group was researching or actively pushing out further into space exploration so when shit does hit the fan we have a better chance of survival.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

That is amazing! Just shows that our solar system is mysterious. In terms of planets which one is this diamond nearest too?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It's not in our solar system. It's a star (white dwarf) by itself, 50 ly or about 4.7 × 1016 km away from our solar system.

How ya doing, buddy?

Rats. Everyone beat me to the punch on making a jab at DeBeers Sigh...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Aardark

"And we went to the moon. Do we really have to go to Mars?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it's next. Because we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill and we saw fire; and we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the west, and we took to the sky. The history of man is on a timeline of explorations and this is What's next."

What, does Mallory's husband Jimmy work for NASA? =O Sure, there has been forward progress since the caveman days but that sure as hell doesn't mean the next forward step is space. We have a lot of shit to worry about from this planet, namely ourselves, before we should focus on a GAMMA RAY BURST.

Quote:

I dunno, I think if you want to talk about wasting money, you should be looking at the army instead. The budget of NASA is less than 5% of what the US military budget is. I don't think money spent on science is ever ''wasted'', be it space exploration or anything else.

Five percent or not; millions (or probably billions) of dollars are still the same. And you and I both know there's no sense in hoping that military (WAR) dollars are ever gonnna go anywhere else. America's past time is baseball while humanities is destroying one another. We need money for such recreation.

Quote:

It's not that Earth can't handle us for much longer -- I'm sure it can, unless we nuke it ourselves -- but sooner or later humanity will have to move on, or become extinct. Well, the Sun becoming a red giant is pretty far off, but there are more real concerns like impact events (asteroids, meteroids, comets) or a gamma ray burst, or other shit. The probability of such events is statistically very small, but sooner or later something like that will happen, and if our only concern until that will have been ''what's here'', it will already be much too late.

You really think we can do a damned thing about those things? You know better than I do, so tell me. Shonos says humanity has the tendency of not doing anything until it's far too late, which is damned true. What's also true is that humanity thinks it can, with enough time and money, fix/solve/prevent anything; squandering God knows what in the process.

Quote:

There's also the thing about astronomy being insanely interesting.

True.

Quote:

You can say that it's ''just'' curiosity, but curiousity is what got us out of the caves.

Let's see what else it'll get us out of.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Harry Mason

Let's see what else it'll get us out of.

Or into...

**kills a couple of cats**

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Shonos

the Milky Way colliding with Andromeda

This won't have much effect other than gravity, as the space between stars makes the chances of any collision almost nil.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Harry Mason

We have a lot of shit to worry about from this planet, namely ourselves, before we should focus on a GAMMA RAY BURST.

Well, I don't know. Humanity has always had its problems, so I don't think we can realistically wait for the creation of a worldwide utopian society before even thinking about studying space.

Quote:

Five percent or not; millions (or probably billions) of dollars are still the same.

Yeah, for 2007, it's about 16 billion dollars, and I do think that's not enough. 16 billion dollars is a lot of money, but relatively to the rest of the US budget it's almost nothing, and I honestly don't think it would make any notable positive difference -- neither in the long run nor short term -- if that money was diverted somewhere else.

This site mentions that ''it has been conservatively estimated by U.S. space experts that for every dollar the U.S. spends on resarch and development in the space program, it receives $7 back in the form of corporate and personal income taxes from increased jobs and economic growth.'' I don't know if that's true, since ''estimated by space experts'' isn't exactly a proper reference, but who knows. There's also a list of some NASA science projects that do benefit those of us that stay on Earth.

That said, I do think that the money NASA is given could probably be better spent. For instance, I'm not really sure about the usefulness of manned space flights at this point; it'd probably be better to concentrate primarily on R&D to make space flight much safer and more economical. As I understand, they plan for ''humanity to return to the Moon'' by 2018, and I'm not really sure if there's any good reason for that, or if it's just for kicks. Though I'm no expert.

Quote:

You really think we can do a damned thing about those things? You know better than I do, so tell me.

About asteroids: yes, we can. It should be possible to change the trajectory of an asteroid, using either current technology or technology that could be available in the coming decades -- if we discover the object on collision course early enough (at least ten years or more before impact). That's not impossible either, although one problem is the glare of the Sun, which creates a blind spot (I'm not sure how large) in which nothing can be detected. That can be solved by using an extraterrestrial telescope (say, on Mars or something).

I read on Wikipedia (lol) that it's estimated there are ~1500 large objects capable of crossing Earth's orbit, and that within a 1000-year period, some of them are going to hit us. It's impossible to tell if they'll start a new ice age or wipe out a city or two with tsunamis, or just hit some area in Syberia that no one cares about, but either way, the possibility or preventing it rises greatly if we keep up research and development of astronomy as much as we can.

Preventing impact with a comet would be more difficult, as our advance warning would be shorter, but with enough research it's not impossible.

Now, if something like a type Ia supernova occurs somewhere near us (near being closer than 3000 light years or so), then I have to admit we truly are completely fucked, whichever way you look at it. They are almost impossible to detect, and for all I know, gamma rays from a 1000 year old supernova could destroy the Earth's ozone layer before I finish writing this post. There is an unproven theory that a supernova 6000 light years away caused the death of more than 50% life on Earth ~450 million years ago. Ways of avoiding something like that are so far off that it's basically just science fiction, but luckily the probability is also extremely low.

Jam it back in, in the dark.