Astronomers Discover Planet Made Out of Diamond

[Ledan]

Aha! Find me a planet made of gold, and we can make the mother of all engagement rings.

 

[Biodeamon]

http://theinfosphere.org/images/7/7c/Diamondillium_Sphere.png
tottally related. somehow. at least in my mind.

 

[TallanKhan]

Im smiling right now knowing that at this very moment thousands of idiots are paying a fortune to "extraterrestrial real estate" for legally worthless certificates of ownership for plots of the "money planet".

 

[dyre]

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)

Do you happen to have an estimate on how much cheaper they would be if DeBeers weren't artificially inflating the price (by controlling supply, right?)? I knew they were exaggerating the value of diamonds, but I didn't think diamonds were a dime a dozen or anything.

 

[geldonyetich]

Apparently it'll be a tad trickier for the diamond industry to control scarcity if we ever get to that planet.

 

[Something Amyss]

Now if only we could get there. Then jewelry prices would come way down.

According to someone below me, jewelry prices wouldn't fall. So I guess there's that.

Yeah, the price of diamonds is based more on artificial scaricity, so they'd probably just find a way to lock down the prices, even if it was cheap to travel there.

Case in point: In the 80s, record manufacturers were pissed off that certain countries like the US could undercut their distibutors by ordering in bulk from, say, South America. So what did they do? They lobbied for additional tariffs. Now, of course, we have region locking.

So even if the diamonds were the right grade and the cost of shipping them from 40 ly away was reasonable, they'd campaign to levy some "space tax" on diamonds not mined on Earth. For...Safety reasons or something.

 

[Kopikatsu]

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)

Do you happen to have an estimate on how much cheaper they would be if DeBeers weren't artificially inflating the price (by controlling supply, right?)? I knew they were exaggerating the value of diamonds, but I didn't think diamonds were a dime a dozen or anything.

I don't know the true value, but I do know of a good comparison. Silicon Carbide (Moissanite [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite]) is superior to Diamonds in almost every way. It's actually rare (But can be and is synthesized to a higher quality than synthetic diamonds are), almost as hard as a diamond, has a higher rate of refraction compared to a diamond (Which means that it shines brighter), has greater luster, and has more than twice the amount of dispersion that diamonds do. But even so, a nice quality 1 Carat Diamond would set you back about $6000~. A nice quality 1 Carat Moissanite gem would cost about $500.


The reason I know most of this is because I had a friend who was a jeweler. He's in jail now for fraud though, because when people brought jewelery to him (To get it refitted or whatever else), he'd replace the gemstones with cheap knockoffs. (Not really something I knew he was doing until he was arrested for it, though).

Edit: Additional benefit. Buying Moissanite doesn't subsidize African warlords ('Cause a lot of the diamond mines are in Africa, where the local warlords have the people under their control mine it out). A two thirds of all diamonds mined come from Africa, so yeah.

 

[dyre]

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)

Do you happen to have an estimate on how much cheaper they would be if DeBeers weren't artificially inflating the price (by controlling supply, right?)? I knew they were exaggerating the value of diamonds, but I didn't think diamonds were a dime a dozen or anything.

I don't know the true value, but I do know of a good comparison. Silicon Carbide (Moissanite [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite]) is superior to Diamonds in almost every way. It's actually rare (But can be and is synthesized to a higher quality than synthetic diamonds are), almost as hard as a diamond, has a higher rate of refraction compared to a diamond (Which means that it shines brighter), has greater luster, and has more than twice the amount of dispersion that diamonds do. But even so, a nice quality 1 Carat Diamond would set you back about $6000~. A nice quality 1 Carat Moissanite gem would cost about $500.


The reason I know most of this is because I had a friend who was a jeweler. He's in jail now for fraud though, because when people brought jewelery to him (To get it refitted or whatever else), he'd replace the gemstones with cheap knockoffs. (Not really something I knew he was doing until he was arrested for it, though).

Edit: Additional benefit. Buying Moissanite doesn't subsidize African warlords ('Cause a lot of the diamond mines are in Africa, where the local warlords have the people under their control mine it out). A two thirds of all diamonds mined come from Africa, so yeah.

lulz, I knew about the African warlords thing. But I wonder, how much could DeBeers really be paying those guys if diamonds are so common anyway? Depends on how secure their monopoly is, I guess.

Anyway, that's really interesting. Thanks for the information.

 

[Vegosiux]

(Can't think of the word for it...searching for mineral deposits)

Prospecting?

But yeah, well, a planet made out of carbon formation, big deal I say. Diamonds are overhyped, really. Besides, their practical use beats their vanity use anyway.

 

[Beautiful End]

Pssh, that's nothing. My manor is made out of diamonds.

Oh, wait. That's in Minecraft.

...So there's a Minecraft planet?!

I'm so confused right now.

 

[GTwander]

This is good... this is very good.

History books will tell the tale of how our intergalactic society was sparked by nagging wives everywhere.

 

[Signa]

So this is where Butt Stallion must have been purchased fro...

So I'm guessing that's the homeworld of Butt Stallion from Borderlands 2?

Fuck. Beaten.

 

[PunkRex]

GIMME!

 

[blackrave]

Who cares?
What we really need is planet made of heavy metals somewhere near us

 

[Squilookle]

Someone get Jerry Bruckheimer on this ASAP- I smell a blockbuster in the making.

Something like "Top Rock Gone in 60 Armaggeddons" ...Oh god that was awful. Still with this guy in the lead everything would be alright:

 

[xPixelatedx]

This is one of those things that I am not going to believe until they can actually prove it, especially when they admit it's their best guess.

We look up at the stars and make all kinds of assumptions only based on what we know so far. The thing is, we don't know everything. Half of this stuff could be wrong, especially when we already see things up there that don't conform to our standards of physics. One day many of these things will be hailed as silly fables, much like the magic islands and sea monsters that supposedly awaited us in the most distant oceans. You know, before we actually explored all of our world and found out how boring it really was.

 

[go-10]

so most of the planet is made of diamonds right?
so when the sun light hits it does it glow like a giant disco ball?

 

[Patrick Buck]

SOOOOOOOON. MY TELEPORT WILL BE READY SOOOOOOOOOON.
DIMONDS SHALL BE MINE, AND I SHALL RULE THE WOOOOORRRRLD. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA.

*Cough* Anyway, that's pretty cool.

[small]And it'll all be mine sooooooooooon.[/small]

 

[hatseflats]

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.

I was thinking that was common knowledge.
I wonder if there is a planet out there made of gold. gold looks better than diamonds anyway.

Yeah except for the small detail that it's bullshit. Of course, if there had been a monopoly capable of raising prices from "almost worthless" to "really expensive", then increased competition by an influx of diamonds from another supplier would destroy the current prices rather than not have any effect. And then there is the whole De Beers monopoly, which is false:

In 2000, the De Beers model changed,[19] due to factors such as the decision by producers in Russia, Canada and Australia, to distribute diamonds outside of the De Beers channel, thus effectively ending the monopoly.

And anyway, the difference between the prices under the former De Beers monopoly and no monopoly is not as substantial as between "extremely valuable" and "worthless". The monopoly was nowhere near a perfect monopoly. Blood diamonds and diamonds delved by mines under government supervision are part of the competition.
Even if there had been a perfect monopoly, then the difference in price would not have been as sizeable as between "expensive" and "worthless". A higher price also results in lower demand. The profit maximising price is typically higher for a monopolist than for a seller in a perfect market, but it is unlikely to be in the neighbourhood of a 100% price difference, and is certainly not bigger. Basic economics.