Lucy in the Sky with One Really Big Diamond

By Gordon Hopkins As a young lad, I was fascinated by the science of space. I loved science fiction but I also loved science fact. I regularly raided the local library for books on planets, moons, stars, galaxies, nebulae (Yes, the plural form of nebula is nebulae, look it up) and all manner of spacey stuff.At one point in my youth I even dreamed of becoming an astronomer, though that dream soon fell to the wayside when I realized the amount of work involved in astronomy conflicted with my other dream of being really, really lazy. Even today, as a cynical old guy convinced the world is going to hell in a (poorly made, overpriced) hand-basket, I can still feel that familiar, innocent thrill I used to get as a kid whenever I come across some news story about a scientific discovery regarding a celestial body.This morning, whilst reading about horrible people doing horrible things in a horrible, horrible world, I stumbled across a small story amongst all the doom and gloom about the planet closest to our Sun, Mercury. Analysis of data collected by NASA's MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft, launched in 2004, suggests that Mercury may (I emphasize MAY) have a 10-mile-thick diamond mantle beneath it's extremely hot surface. Olivier Namur, an associate professor at KU Leuven, explained to Space.com in an interview, “We calculate that, given the new estimate of the pressure at the mantle-core boundary, and knowing that Mercury is a carbon-rich planet, the carbon-bearing mineral that would form at the interface between mantle and core is diamond and not graphite.” I'm not quite sure what all that means but it sure sounds like science. Had I read this as a kid, I would have thought, “Coooool!” As a cynical adult, my first thought was, “I wonder how much a planet-sized diamond is worth?”I read lots of old science fiction novels as a kid about space entrepreneurs, mining other worlds for something valuable. But would mining for space diamonds really be worth it? Supply and demand suggest a glut of new diamonds on Earth would lower their value considerably. On the other hand, would space diamonds be more or less valuable than Earth diamonds? Perhaps the value of space diamonds is more than mere scarcity. In Arthur C. Clarke's second equal to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” called “2061: Odyssey Three,” a mountain made of diamond on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Clarke hypothesized that a huge supply of diamonds could be used as one of the strongest building materials ever, could be capable of structures far grander and more indestructible than anything made from concrete and steel and glass. An epilogue set in the year 3001 featured an Earth connected to orbit by “space elevators” made from diamonds. So, my point is, if you wish to invest in a sure fire money-maker, just send your really big checks to Mercury Mining, Inc., care of this newspaper.

Roger O. Pollman

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