Planet of Gold and Diamonds

http://www.space.com/12731-diamond-alien-planet-discovered-neutron-star.html
deBeers have already claimed the complete planet.

It is speculated Jupiter's core is essentially a diamond.

The only planet I know of that is made mostly of gold is Voga, but the inhabitants are very nasty when it comes to visitors.

Actually, Jupiter's core is probably metallic hydrogen.

Most importantly, what are the odds of being able to get there, mine sufficient product of sufficient quality to justify both the cost of the trip and the return to a place where one can sell it (not likely to be any where near the planet!) and also to do so within a reasonable timeframe- or at least one's lifetime, to make it worthwhile wasting most of it on the trip?

More likely the best value would be in finding it and selling the location, shares in a venture to go there at such time as technology makes it near practical (as well as jumpstarting development of such technology), hey you could even franchise it (McDiamonds??)!! Unfortunately P.T. Barnum is no longer available to be your marketing agent.

Which would also reduce its value via supply/demand relationships in the market place.

I think DeBeers(1) has that problem worked out: artificially manipulate the supply in order to keep the demand high. All it takes is a willingness to violate several moral, legal and ethical business standards.

Notes:

1) and Anglo Americal plc (a UK company, despite the name), the other half of the Diamond Cartel.

I vaguely recall from the days long ago when buying a diamond engagement ring that, apart from size, the value was in the perfection. A flawless natural diamond (unlikely in big ones) fetched the highest prices.

That was until artificial diamonds became available. They were naturally flawless due to the way they sere made - and thus to combat competition where artificial ones were masquerading as 'real' diamonds - but much cheaper - the vested interests in the 'trade' introduced a measure of 'required' impurity' to distinguish real from artificial.

Whether that is the case today, I don't know. I'm not likely to be buying another engagement. Although lately I have bought a few diamond edged cutters for general jobbing work around the house. I'm not particularly bothered by visual 'perfection' as long as they keep cutting.

But back to the OP, has the supply situation reached a stage where we need to find a planetful. Perhaps there is a supply closer to home to be harvested in the satellite belts.

I don't know if your calling a flaw from mineral inclusion/contaminates or an actual structural fault. There is a big difference there.

I had no real idea what form the flaws take, but from reading the posts here it seems they can be structural, contaminated, or the way they are cut - at least as far as the value is concerned, but back in those days, going by what the jeweller told me, and considering I did not have any money for anything lavish, the diamond in my wife's engagement ring is is probably flawed, and it was certainly was small, but it was perfect for the purpose. In fact we expect to celebrate our diamond wedding anniversary next year. That can't be bad, and what a coincidence!

For the OP we might find the spaceship comes back with some other valuable materials that jewellers can use instead. Gold and diamonds etc, can then be released for practical applications.

I had purchased jewelry that included a diamond on one of my vacations that came with a Gemological report. It was quite interesting once you start investigating it and then I started noticing things about diamonds.

When we were dancing at a club, under the black light on the dance floor, some diamonds actually fluorescence while other didn't. Even supposable match earrings, one fluorescent, the other one didn't. One earring did, the other didn't, necklace did, ring didn't. So of course I had to find out why.

Funny thing, before I knew it, all the patrons in the night club were comparing their jewelry also.

I must congratulate you on that achievement. Not everyone makes that far by a long shot, and the ones that do deserve special recognition for dedicated service (in the line of fire in some instances). So glad to learn that not every marriage is a lost enterprise based on faulty communications, and each one withdrawing to their respective corners.

There never really has been a truly "flawless" natural diamond. Artificial ones probably also have flaws, but these are probably down on the microscopic size scale.

The best way to make money on this gold or diamond (or both) planet would be to sell tickets to watch the spacecraft take off with the robotic swarm aboard that will do the mining. See ya' in about 100 yrs. Oh, and by the way, do not engage the warp drive while still in low earth orbit, please. That really creates headaches down below.

There certainly are truly flawless diamonds, both natural and synthetic. The natural ones the flawed sections were cut away leaving just the single flawless crystal structure. Then the stone faceting shape was often chosen to maximize the size of the final gem. This practice was done much more often when no synthetic diamonds were made for even industrial uses. The excess flawed pieces would always have a significant value. Now unless the imperfection is excessive or the piece cut off can have a usable gem also the removal of flaws minimizes the total carat weight for little return.

Flawless is a term used by gemologists who grade diamonds. That does not mean there are not molecular "flaws". I am sorry, but there is so much going on here that does not meet the eye - literally.

I agree that there are many natural diamonds graded "flawless", but I expect that on further review something could be found. Chemists used to use very high grade "flawless" diamonds for a sample holder in certain spectroscopy experiments, simply because the (I think) infrared transmission properties were so high in a particular band of the IR spectrum. It may have been ATR (attenuated total reflectance), but don't hold me to that, as I didn't have time to review my college notes.

You are correct that a gemologist grade of flawless is a visual grade that has a subset of truly flawless but defraction pattern tests of crystals grown both naturally and by man have identified truly flawless stones. I believe defraction pattern tests has even identified Nitrogen atom flaws that were once C14 in the crystal lattice.

I'll look in Google Scholar later today.

Red: Do you suppose that if ¹⁴C (n,p)β ¹⁴N in a diamond, that the result could also be a "color center"? I don't know, and apparently your knowlege of this is surpassing.

I don't know if a color change would be noticed. I worked with a team that made silicon crystal based monochromators for a few synchrotron light sources. My knowledge on diamonds come from consulting with X-Ray diffraction studies of industrial and a few gem quality diamonds used in a diamond anvil experiment.

Here is info on the N-V- point defect in diamonds:

nitrogen-vacancy center (N-V center) is one of numerous point defects in diamonds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-vacancy_center

C-nitrogen center

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_defects_in_diamond

Thank you inspiring me to keep looking and do a little research on this.

I understand that color centers are important in some concept of quantum computing.

Once you understand how diamonds are made, you then can narrow it down to planets that has the best potential of diamonds.

btw, diamonds are not that rare, supply is actually controlled by De Beers.

Not all that likely.

Gold is made of, well, gold. It's often found associated with quartz (silicon).

Diamonds are made of carbon.

Many other precious gems are various forms of aluminum oxide crystals with 'impurities' that give the stones their color and brilliance.

I don't recall reading of very many place on Earth where you find these together.

they're all star dust.

In your lifetime, zero. Lets get real for a minute. It was over 42 years ago the last time a human being was on our moon. We have never been to another planet in our solar system. It is far more likely humanity will never be able to leave our solar system. I will be pleasantly surprised if another person sets foot on the moon in my lifetime but I doubt that it will ever happen again.

It will be easier to get a pig to fly.

But they are racing to mine the moon, right now. Isn't it?

A CEO wanted to go to Mars by next 10 years, quite a goal.

10 years is a pretty aggressive ..... ^unrealistic schedule

First pig on the moon....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J45tEOcaolA

I thought pig will end up ground pork with that type of propulsion.

Sadly, you are probably right.

It's not the technology that binds us to Earth so much as the general public's lack of will.

The general population is much more content to ride the coat tails of Hollywood into space, probably because their astronauts are just simply much sexier.

on your topic..... here's an interesting quote

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing
what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it
is to have a boyfriend." - Stephen King

Just ask a Mormon. Their cult promises a golden planet to each man who becomes a "god".

<OH, look out>

Organized Religion: Successfully holding back the progress of Mankind for over 5,000 years.

You mean cult, not religion.

They're interchangeable.

Really? You're still living in a cave? How are you managing to send notes to CR4 without a computer?

I've seen a lot of art, music, and technology that exists because of religion, and I've seen examples where science (Lysenkoism) and atheism (the 'Cultural Revolution' in China) held back progress.

The short list...

Cave? You don't know what you're talking about. Selected art, Selected Music, and technology as long as it didn't threaten religion currently in control at hand, then it was approved.

They even selected what was to be in the bible, then they have the audacity to call it the word of God.

You ever hear of a fellow named Galileo Galilei

Here's a link...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

Btw, about 2 years ago, 500 years later, the Catholic Church finally apologized to Galileo.

Or Nicolaus Copernicus, who was a catholic cleric, he was fine as long as his findings agreed with the church. Otherwise there would be trouble.

Btw, for the cave dwellers, From his observations he theorized that the earth, rather than standing still, rotated around its axis daily and traveled around the sun, this upset the church because at the time, the churches stance was everything orbited around the earth.

That's something you probally didn't know.... That is if you lived in a cave. :/

I'm not a religious person. Haven't been to church in years. I have a degree in astrophysics and I am very familiar with the story of Galileo - the whole story, not just the simplified high school version you hear on shows like 'Cosmos' or read in popular magazines.

I suggest you read 'Galileo's Daughter' by Dava Sobel.

But you are right about religion holding back the progress of mankind:

Obviously this set us back 1,000 years...

So when I go to visit the Sistine Chapel I'll yell: "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

Thanks, I'll see if I can 'Galileo's Daughter' on my i-pad

btw, Nice Monty Python quote.

And to keep it on the same note/tone as your response, the Spanish Inquisition was yet another.

I maintain that religion, any religion (but in this case, the middle ages) will suppress mankind advances if it is a threat to the religion organization itself.

But here is an interesting observation.

And I'll set this observation up with a statement you have to finish.

Today I've seen a lot of art, music, and technology that exists because of BLANK.

Now, you fill in the blank

Then look at this link

What was your answer?

Because, I just thought it was an interesting observation.

Also, if you read through it,.... it get to be quite a pi$sing contest. Because of the competition of our off-topic, topic.

Also, it reinforces my stance...... of course.

Carpe diem

Lysenkoism was not science.
The Cultural Revolution was probably more about political "imperatives".

Wait a minute! If we could tow a planet of gold back to earth, we could pave the streets with it.

Introducing a windfall of such treasures would de-valuate and devastate the economy as we know it. The only thing that keeps the price so high is the rarity of these things. The Oort cloud is full of gold. The problem is that it is a very, very large cloud with a lot of empty space between particles. Collisions with these particles could kill you, so maybe it is best to stick with what we can find on the ground.

Flooding the diamond market is a problem that the Russians and DeBeers Co. constantly try to avoid.

We could also get one hundred twenty seven angels to dance on the head of a pin. That would be a prime example of useful fantasy.

Guy tells his girl, "I'll give you the moon. It's up to you to figure out how to get it home."

I'm thinking if she hast tinted windows and just rolls up the window she could probably just drive him home without attracting too much attention.

Insert Rimshot here.

We dont need a planet made of diamonds, gold or precious gems - not billions of trillions of tons - just a few thousand tons lying on the surface to be picked up easily.

But why? Are we so short of these materials here on Earth that it could bring progress and evolution to a halt.

Gold is what's driving recycling of electronics. Because of its low resistance properties of electrical connections.

But that is due to economics - it is cheaper to reclaim gold than it is to find it and mine it.

...unless I am wrong...and we are likely to run out soon....and since we are not likely to find a planet....what do we do??

From the BBC News Magazine

A figure that is widely used by investors comes from Thomson Reuters GFMS, which produces an annual gold survey.

A cube made of 171,300 tons would be about 20.7m (68ft) on each side. Or to put it another way, it would reach to 9.8m above ground level if exactly covering Wimbledon Centre Court.

We're just fortunate that gold's other property is that its very malleable.

We need RARE EARTH minerals a lot more than diamonds and gold. Russia seems to have a Moon mining plan in place, using a 10 year plan and multiple supply trips. And, as mentioned, the first returning ship of gold and diamonds would render the supply chain useless and of no more value...