Friday, June 09, 2006

Lucy in the skies with diamonds

It has been reported that astronomers using data from Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, have deduced that planets may be orbiting the star Beta Pictoris, around 60 ly away from us. Beta Pictoris is said to be teeming with carbon, as such, the planets around it may have encrusted with diamonds as large as boulders.The planetary system and Beta Pictoris itself are relatively young, around 20 million years old.

I won't be surprised if they name the planets Lucy, deBeers, and Tiffany.

More from NASA here and here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

...or enough graphite for all our pencil needs, hehe. let's just wait and see if deBeers adds this to their monopoly...

Kin Enriquez said...

and if your girlfriend wants you to promise her the moon and the stars, suggest she should have Beta Pictoris instead