A Diamond the Size of Earth - is this Jupiter's core?

www.guide-to-the-universe.com ^ | 12/28/2018 - Undated | Staff

[MichaelCorleone]

-—It has been postulated that the two outer liquid giants of our solar system, Uranus and Neptune, are hiding, beneath their dense atmosphere, oceans of liquid diamond...-—

I thought diamond was either a solid or, when heated to a high enough temperature, goes straight to a gaseous state.

Guess not.

[Red Badger]

Liquid Diamond has been created on Earth, by accident.

I vaguely remember a science article from years ago, where scientists were working on something else, and were using a diamond as a base. They aimed a laser at something on the surface of the diamond, in vacuum and under high pressure. The laser was out of focus and missed the target and hit the bare diamond instead.

What they saw under a microscope was that the diamond had melted and flowed away from the spot then re-solidified.................

[PIF]

Not here but I sure you could get some from your local jeweler ... or you could blow the vaults at De Boors for kicks

[Fhios]

Too much phantasy physics and completely skipping the known fusion chain of large celestial bodies.

[golux]

Lucky gal! I renamed a red dwarf after my girlfriend and both of them were furious.

[bgill]

Here’s to cubic zirconias!

[dirtymac]

‘Where does all this carbon come from?’

Global, uh Galactic warming. Trump is to blame because he negated the Paris Climate Accord.

[Swordmaker]

A diamond is a piece of crap stone in the first place. It’s uniqueness is that it comes from 1 area of the planet and is controlled by one family. “Contrived scarcity”

Not true. The Russians are sitting on a lode of gem quality diamonds in a meteor crator where there are an estimated several trillion carats of high quality diamonds. Diamonds are also mined in India, Australia, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, and in the U.S. Russia is the largest producer of diamonds. . . and the de Beers cartel has no control over anything except part of the African market and that is waning.

Black diamonds, none of which were ever mined in normal diamond mines, which other than red diamonds were considered the rarest fancy color diamonds were traditionally found strewn on the ground in central Africa and South America and were usually the size of a pea or smaller. Most were the size of grains of sand and are used in jewelry as pavé settings. Black diamonds are, as a rule, very slightly lighter but very slightly harder than other color diamonds.

Up to 15 years ago only three black diamonds were much larger than that size. The largest two were the greater and lesser Black Orlovs, both were in the Crown Jewels of the Russian Tzar. The Greater Black Orlov is about the size and shape of half a chicken egg at 667 carats and is striated with brown and white inclusions and is mounted in the Tzar’s Scepter. It’s a crappy diamond. The lesser Black Orlov is a far better quality diamond weighing in at 67.5 carats and is mounted in a necklace made of a 128 white diamond brooch suspended from a 124 diamond 18k gold chain.

The Lesser Black Orlov

The next largest was a 32 carat pendant.

Given the distribution of black diamonds and their chemical impurities, it is thought that all black diamonds come from a single source; a huge one kilometer in diameter black diamond asteroid that was born in the center of a supernova which struck the earth about two billion years ago and may have been the initiating event that broke up the super-continent on Pangea, striking right where the land masses of Proto-Africa and protests-South-America were joined, and burying itself in the earth, after strewing small fragments of itself over thousands of square miles.

About fifteen years ago, someone in Africa dug into a lode of black diamonds, perhaps even the main body of that asteroid, or a huge piece of it, and much larger cut black diamonds started appearing on the market from a mysterious source. These black diamonds were being cut in Israel and India and were not under the control of the de Beers Diamond Cartel so were not price nor supplied controlled. . . and much larger carat stones became available.

I designed and had made a solitaire man’s ring with a 15 1/2 carat black diamond in rose gold which I wear daily.

Swordmaker’s and Kathy’s black diamond rings

I did the same for a six carat black diamond with 28 champagne diamonds in yellow gold for my girlfriend. I own a 121 carat black diamond I’m trying to think of a good use for. . . I’m thinking gearshift knob, cane topper, or club. . . It’s a 1¼ " in diameter round cut.

Swordmaker’s 121 carat black diamond

I had an opportunity to buy a 255 carat black diamond but it was only about 3/32 of an inch larger in diameter than the 121 carat I already owned and was lesser in quality, I passed. It was a great demonstration of the square-cube law. . .

About five years ago, the supply of black diamonds started to dwindle. It seems that Communist rebels overran the African location where the source was and the mine was either shut down our sealed by explosives. The prices started climbing, going up by ten or more times what they had been when they first appeared for sale. I now seldom see large black diamonds offered.

Getting back to your original point. Diamond is not a scarce gem. If it were not a controlled market, gem quality diamonds would sell for around $15 per carat.

[Swordmaker]

I thought diamond was either a solid or, when heated to a high enough temperature, goes straight to a gaseous state.

Crystal Carbon in vacuum does indeed sublimate directly to a gas. Under very extreme pressure in a non-volatile atmosphere, it can go to a liquid carbon form. . . Which could still maintain a crystalline structure. In an oxygen atmosphere, diamond burns.

[Dutch Boy]

And still not a large enough stone for some.

[DickBrannigan]

Wait until the Ferengi find out....

[Svartalfiar]

Diamonds are basically worthless anyway - its only the hording by de Boors that makes them valuable.

Diamonds are one of the hardest substances on Earth. They have lots of uses, all over engineering and manufacturing. The only reason they are as expensive as they are is because of their uses in jewelry. If no one wanted diamond rings, they'd be a lot cheaper and widely used in industry instead of personal luxury.

[RandallFlagg]

We still can't produce the pressure necessary to duplicate it on Earth.

You obviously haven't heard about the vicious and legendary death grip Hillary is able to produce upon the neck of a bottle of Smirnoff.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj. Hydrocarbons, including tar, most amusing. :^)

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[SunkenCiv]

http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1677175/posts?page=16#16

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/deusexmachina/index

[DoodleBob]

I'm hardly an expert on diamonds, but I passed economics. The same "worthless" labeled can be ascribed to a John Lennon autograph, Honus Wagner baseball card, and a Fendi clutch...they're worthless collections of ink, paper, and leather. But someone wants that scarce product. THAT is what causes the "worthless" to have value.

Even if production was concentrated in the hands of one producer, you'd still need DEMAND to generate a hefty price.This somewhat old article points to a confluence of events (environmental concerns, ethics, generational changes, increased appeal of substitute products) impacting price, whereby even planned output reductions can't stem the price decline.

[YogicCowboy]

It has inherent value, like gold, and myrrh. It is valuable as a cutting edge, being the hardest natural substance.

Ancient peoples did not randomly pick “crap” items to act as money. They wanted items with intrinsic usefulness.