BPM 37093

A relatively close white dwarf star located in the constellation Centaurus. It consists of a thin hydrogen atmosphere overlying a Moon-sized carbon core in which the atoms are believed to have been pushed so close together by gravitational pressure that they have stripped each other's electrons from around their positively charged nuclei and the mutual repulsion between the nuclei has forced them into a crystalline lattice structure. In February 2004 scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that their recent investigations of the star had confirmed BPM 37093 to be a crystalline white dwarf, the first such object to be detected, The detection gave tangible proof to a theory advanced independently by Kirzhnitz (1960), Abrikosov (1960), and Salpeter (1961) that cool white dwarfs might crystallize. BPM 37093 is a pulsating star, and measurements of the pulsations indicate that the interior of the white dwarf is indeed solid crystalline carbon. Since BPM 37093 is effectively a vast cosmic diamond, it has been unofficially nicknamed ‘Lucy’, in recollection of the Beatles' song ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds'. m_v : 13; spectral type: DA V; diameter: about 4000 km; mass: 1.14 times solar mass; distance: 15.3 pc.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

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Lucy

References in periodicals archive

"The Diamond Planet" - more formally known as BPM 37093, is, in fact, one enormous diamond measuring a generous 4,000km in width and weighing a phenomenal 10bn trillion trillion carats!

UNDER THE HAMMER

The BPM 37093, nicknamed the Lucy Diamond, is 2500 miles in diameter and is floating through space 50 light years away in the Centaurus solar system.

WORLD'S LARGEST DIAMOND; Clawed from the dirt of an African mine, an unremarkable green rock the size of a coconut which could be worth tens of millions of pounds

Although this white dwarf is officially designated BPM 37093, its crystalline carbon sounds close enough to diamond to prompt some to call it Lucy, and with Lucy really in the sky with diamonds, we may want to invest in more multiple-mirror configurations.

Diamond in the sky: the celestial vault is also a treasure chest

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is a crystallised white dwarf.

LUCY.. THE STAR THAT IS A REAL DIAMOND; Dead sun's heart is giant gem

"The Diamond Planet", more formally known as BPM 37093, is in fact one enormous diamond measuring a generous 4,000km in width and weighing a phenomenal 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

Diamonds are a cut above rest; Under the Hammer

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