http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm

 

According to astronomers, a large shrinking star crystallized, and turned to diamond. It is 1 * 10^34 carats, and about 50 light years away.

 

What would happen if they sent a robotic space probe over (with extremely high speeds, over c) and took a chunk out? "Space Diamonds!" You could sell it for millions(no, billions) of dollars!

the problem would then be ....whose is it? the US governments?

the company that mines it? UN?

I dunno, but they would need lots of cash. But they would get it back selling the diamonds.

When it says mostly carbon, surely there are lots of other elements mixed in with it? Carbon isnt the only element created from stars.

 

And the current high price for diamonds is only caused by their being rare. if we were able to mine diamonds on the scale you're suggesting, any attempt to sell them would instantly see their value completely disappear because now supply has gone through the roof and demand has dropped like a stone.

Sell them at high cost! They're "space diamonds!"

But think of the scientific possibilities. Forget the value of the diamond, there could be new technologies made from this stuff.

I read a science fiction book by Arthur Clarke--I think it's The Space Odyssey or something-- about Jupiter's core becoming diamond.

psi20 said in post # :

I read a science fiction book by Arthur Clarke--I think it's The Space Odyssey or something-- about Jupiter's core becoming diamond.

 

2061.

IT would be funny if the diamond value dropped, considering this planet is 50 ly and it takes 1billion+ to send the rovers to mars.

820 million, actually.

The value WOULD drop! If it's not scarce, why pay so much for it?

surely planets form spheres due to their rotation?