"Diamond Planets"

[zavvy]

<b>"Diamond Planets"</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />The universe beyond our solar system just got wilder. <br /><br />Astronomers meeting in Colorado this week said they have found a disk of planet-building material around a small, "failed star" called a brown dwarf. The discovery raises the possibility that there may be pint-size solar systems where planets orbit objects far smaller than our sun. <br /><br /><br />Another team of scientists theorized that some faraway planets could be made mostly out of carbon, and may have a thick layer of diamonds hiding under the surface. <br /><br />And yet another astronomer announced that he had spotted the smallest planet ever detected outside our solar system. <br /><br />The results were presented to reporters on Monday in a teleconference from an extra-solar planet meeting held by the American Astronomers Association at the Aspen Center for Physics in Colorado. <br /><br />Smallest Planet <br /><br />Once, scientists believed that planetary systems might be very rare. But since the first planet outside our solar system was found in 1992, more than a hundred planets orbiting stars beyond our system have been discovered. <br /><br />"This dramatic increase in the number of planets discovered … is not by chance," said Michel Mayor, a prominent astronomer at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. "It's the … improvement of the quality of the spectrometers during these years" that have made the discoveries possible. <br /><br />Spectrometers separate radiation, including light, into different wavelengths. This allows astronomers to detect bodies that they can't see with telescopes alone. <br /><br />Up to 20 new planets are being announced this week at the 2005 Winter Conference on Astrophysics, which features more than 200 scientists from around the world. <br /><br />Alex Wolszczan, the Penn State University astronomer who found the first planets out

 

[mott]

what about impacts would that not shatter diamond over time??

 

[nexium]

A brown dwarf with 1/16 th the mass of our sun likely would shine brightly for a few million years (not long enough for much evolution, but genetic engineering is practical) as the plasma compressed to higher density.<br /> It would still be white hot inside when the surface cooled to dull red heat. At this stage it could have the same average density as our sun. It would then have 1/4 the surface area and 1/16 the volumn of our sun? Only planets closer than Mercury would get significant heat at this point. Very advanced civilizations could colonize these planets. In a few million more years the brown dwarf would have 1.1 times the average density of our sun, a cloud top temperature of about 20 degrees c = 68 degrees f, making hot air balloon outposts practical. Planets 10,000 miles (or more) above the surface, would receive too little energy to be useful with present human technology, but the colonists might find a way. At 10,000 miles the planet would likely be inside the roache limit, so the colonists would have to band their planet to keep the powerful tide forces from tearing it apart. Please comment, refute and/or embellish. Neil

 

[thalion]

Brown dwarfs are much denser than the Sun; a 50 Jupiter-mass dwarf with a radius 1/10th solar would be almost 50 times denser.

 

[robnissen]

It appears that diamonds may fall as rain on Neptune. <br />http://www.spacedaily.com/news/carbon-99d.html<br /><br />To the extent that is true (and I have no idea if it is), it would seem to me that a diamond planet would not be that terribly unlikely.

 

[steve01]

Sort of off topic but. . . If they can find a planet the size of pluto (as in the 1st post) Has anyone looked at Alpha Centauri? Would that not be the 1st and most interesting choice of stars to look at 1st?

 

[alokmohan]

This is one useful reference.I SHALL FOLLOW IT UP.Why no further things are heard about.If there is really a chance to get diamond so near ,NASA should explore this .Economically viable.

 

[najab]

><i>There are no diamonds falling as rain anywhere. It's all guessing.</i><p>And that's your guess. As you would say, until someone actually makes the measurement, the hypothesis that diamonds do not fall on Neptune is as valid as the one that says they do.</p>

 

[jatslo]

The following experiment makes it even wilder!<br /><br />http://www.llnl.gov/str/Nellis.html

 

[ehs40]

ita a midget solar system like how we have midgets here on earth we have little stars lol..

 

[Grok]

If, in fact, there were planets full of diamonds, and we managed to mine them, then diamonds would become nearly worthless and only useful for scientific applications.

 

[Saiph]

well, if the diamond cartels didn't have a monopoly (or close enough) on diamonds, they'd be relatively cheap now.<br /><br />And they'd likely still be used in jewelry..they are very beautiful. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Or we could start using them as currency, like Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still."<br /><br />"This is what some people use for money, Bobby. They're easy to carry and they don't wear out." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[2_8angstroms]

One can also dream of single planetary molecules of the fullerene type. One almost certainly would find some fullerenes on a high carbon planet as well as "diamonds"of all grades and probably rubies (silicon carbide) also. Imagine a single 50' diamond lens mounted in a space platform telescope.<br />Fun speculation....<br />2.8 out