Astronomers Discover Planet Made Out of Diamond

[Dire Sloth]

Spoiler

They wouldn't. Diamonds are actually already extremely common on Earth. The perception that they're rare and therefore should be valuable is partially because that was true in the 19th century when mining and (Can't think of the word for it...searching for mineral deposits) weren't good enough to mine a significant amount of diamond. But they are now. Once diamonds started to become really common, the largest of the diamond companies banded together and created De Beers Jewelers [http://www.debeers.co.uk/?region=true], forming a monopoly over the diamond market and allowing them to control the prices. Then they went and advertised diamonds as being rare and very valuable, when in reality, they're almost worthless.

Funfact: Despite being based in the US, Rhodes, Beit, and Rothschild (The founders of De Beers) refused to set food on US soil for fear of being arrested as soon as their plane touched down because of how blatantly illegal what they were doing was. They also had a few more controversies surrounding them, like refusing to help the WW2 war effort (Which isn't supposed to be optional)

Did you just happen to know all that??? 'Cause wow.

lol a friend of mine worked in a jewelry shop, sold a lotta the stuff, told me something similar about the industry...pretty crazy stuff

It's news to me. The most I've ever heard about diamond anything was in a documentary about blood diamonds and illegal mining in Africa.

 

[Stevepinto3]

How in the world do you people think this would LOWER the price of diamonds? Did you miss the whole "40 light years away from Earth" part? The cost of having to go there, set up a means to mine the diamonds, then send them back to earth would be so astronomically (hehe) large that the diamonds would have to cost hundreds of times what they do now.

Also as previously mentioned, the diamond trade is monopolized and corrupt.

 

[omicron1]

Hey folks, Cave Johnson here. Just wanted to say, we found a money planet. We 're calling it Midnight, in honor of the Doctor.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Diamond and graphite? So it's a giant diamond-inlaid pencil.

Now THAT's some ostentatious bling.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

O_O

EUEKA!

DIAMONDS! DIAMONDS EVERYWHERE! WE GOT DIAMONDS PEOPLE!

WE NEED TO FUND SPACE SHIPS TO MINE THE SHIT OUT OF THAT PLANET! GOING TRILLIONS OF MILES FOR A PLANET OF DIAMONDS, AND DUMPING THEM ALL INTO THE EARTHS MARKETS CAN ONLY BE PROFITABLE!

 

[II2]

Good luck mining it, mind.

 

[theswordsmn]

Oh God no!! The Doctor Who episode!!!! WHAT WAS THAT THING!? We must not go to this planet!!

 

[orangeapples]

If there is a whole planet of diamond that we have access to, wouldn't that simply reduce the value of diamond itself?

 

[DracoSuave]

Makes sense.

Carbon's one of the most common elements in the universe--more common than the chunk of molten iron we live on.

Diamond planets should be expected.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

So, if we ever managed to efficiently mine it somehow that bring the value of the diamond down tremendously right? I guess traditional engagement rings would be pretty cheap then!

^ This XD And dammit your avatar is really cute to me for some reason >.<

 

[soren7550]

Pretty sure I've read about this some time back.

 

[Souplex]

A few people have talked about the value of diamonds in relation to this, but the value of diamonds is kept at an artificial high by conglomerates controlling the supply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeBeers

 

[Vigormortis]

I vote we change the name of the planet to Midnight.

Negative. We must call it Lucy. (yes, it's a Beatles reference)

No wait, I forgot. They've already named a collapsed star Lucy, being that it's comprised primarily of diamond.

Damn it. Midnight it is, then.

 

[Rednog]

....But who cares about a planet of diamonds...when humans actually can synthetically forge the perfect diamond?
Seriously we use a ton of synthetic diamonds for industry.

 

[Olas]

Thank GOD. This might literally be the only thing that could convince the federal government to give NASA some actual funding for once.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

Thank GOD. This might literally be the only thing that could convince the federal government to give NASA some actual funding for once.

That or a planet made entirely of Petroleum. BP would have their own space program faster than you could say "Gulf of Mexico".

 

[Misterian]

What's next? a planet made of out rubies?

solid titanium?

stained glass?

Gold?

Emeralds?

rejected scripts written by George Lucas?

 

[Arakasi]

If there were gold bars stacked up on the moon it would cost more to get there and bring them back than the worth of the gold bars.

I assume a similar thing applies here.