Where am I?

[MargaritaMc]

When you made a guess you would ask 'Am I hot or cold?'.
So -

http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/08/ ... f-diamond/

am I hot or cold??

M

Is it still cold?

[Beyond]

Margarita, ok... are you hot or cold

[MargaritaMc]

Margarita, ok... are you hot or cold

Don't know! Have to wait for Ann to tell me!

In the meantime, as I recall you said you liked The Beatles, Beyond!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[Beyond]

Thank-a-you, Margarita. I don't like everything they've done, which also pertains to every other group of singers. Sometimes i might only like one song they do, like Iron Butterfly. The only song of theirs i like is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, which was originally called In The Garden of Eden. The original full length version runs 17 minutes, one whole side of a record. Remember those big round thingies that you played on a phonograph When they do it live, it may last about 25 minutes. They also have a short version that's about 3-minutes long, or short, depending on how you look at it. It leaves out all the middle instrumentals and solos, and only has the begining and the end, where the vocals are.

[MargaritaMc]

I've never heard of Iron Butterfly, Beyond. I'm not very knowledgeable about what I still call Pop music. I probably last bought non-classical recordings when we still had those big black discs with grooves in! So my knowledge stops with The Beatles (apart from Queen, who are great musicians) - I've posted "When I'm 64" over on the music thread as I found it whilst I was looking for the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Are you old enough to remember 78rpm records? That would break if you dropped them? I had some fantastic Stan Freiberg songs and Spike Jones and the City Slickers. And MARIO LANZA!

OH, time to turn in, we'll have to hear Ann's verdict tomorrow. Or I will, anyway - we are five hours ahead of Eastern standard time here, and I've no idea how that relates to the time in Beyonderland.
Margarita

[Beyond]

For my 4000th post, i will say, Margarita, that IF there is "time" in Beyonder land, it is not noticed.
Well, I've hit the BIG 40,0,0. It's all downhill from here.
I've still got some 78's hanging around, along with the 33 1/3's.

[Ann]

Hey Ann, is this close

Teardrop or whirlpool nebula

No, Beyond, you aren't close. You need to go somewhat closer to home (but not all the way to home!

Congrats on that nice round figure!

Ann

[Ann]

When you made a guess you would ask 'Am I hot or cold?'.
So -

http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/08/ ... f-diamond/

am I hot or cold??

M

Is it still cold?

Unfortunately you're still cold, Margarita! There should be no white dwarfs and no neutron stars here! But I have to admit that you gave me the idea for my puzzle when you talked about a whole world made of "neutron diamonds".

So think about something else that could be made of diamonds. Not a neutron star. Not a white dwarf. Not a star of any kind. Something - or two things - closer to home. What could it be? What could they be?

Ann

P.S. The lovely color of the diamond I posted was not entirely coincidental.

[Beyond]

Ann, just before i got to your P.S. this came to mind.

The Seven Sisters

Anywhere near close? To me, it fits your P.S.

[Ann]

I love your spoiler, Beyond!

But your guess is not correct, I'm afraid. Remember that I said that I'm not looking for any stars! You need to get closer to home. Say... couple of light hours from home?

Ann

[Beyond]

Well, that lets me out. I got nutin. I'll watch Margarita or someone else with more awareness of what's around figure it out. I just don't have the space-lobes. I'd call Quark, but i don't know his number.

[Moonlady]

Ok, we got a girl who is from a planet, then we got a diamond picture who could be from earth but also from other places in space,
I found 55 Cancri:

Yale researchers have discovered that a rocky super-Earth orbiting a nearby star is a diamond planet.

“This is our first glimpse of a rocky world with a fundamentally different chemistry from Earth,” said Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, a Yale researcher in physics and astronomy and lead author of a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (arXiv.org version).

“The surface of this planet is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite.”

The planet, called 55 Cancri e, has a radius twice Earth’s, and a mass eight times greater, making it a so-called super-Earth. It is one of five planets orbiting a sun-like star, 55 Cancri, that is located 40 light years from Earth yet visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer. The planet orbits at hyper speed – its year lasts just 18 hours, in contrast to Earth’s 365 days. It is also blazingly hot, with a temperature of about 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers said, a far cry from a habitable world.

55 Cancri e was first observed transiting its star last year, allowing astronomers to measure its radius for the first time. This new information, combined with the most recent estimate of its mass, allowed the Yale team to infer its chemical composition using models of its interior and by computing all possible combinations of elements and compounds that would yield those specific characteristics.

Astronomers had previously reported that the host star has more carbon than oxygen, and the team confirmed that substantial amounts of carbon and silicon carbide, and a negligible amount of water ice, were available during the planet’s formation.

“Astronomers also thought 55 Cancri e contained a substantial amount of super-heated water, based on the assumption that its chemical makeup was similar to Earth’s,” Dr Madhusudhan said.

But the new research suggests the planet has no water at all, and appears to be composed primarily of carbon (as graphite and diamond), iron, silicon carbide, and, possibly, some silicates. The study estimates that at least a third of the planet’s mass – the equivalent of about three Earth masses – could be diamond.

“By contrast, Earth’s interior is rich in oxygen, but extremely poor in carbon — less than a part in thousand by mass,” said co-author Dr Kanani Lee, geophysicist with Yale University.

“The identification of a carbon-rich super-Earth means that distant rocky planets can no longer be assumed to have chemical constituents, interiors, atmospheres, or biologies similar to those of Earth,” Dr Madhusudhan said.

The discovery also opens new avenues for the study of geochemistry and geophysical processes in Earth-sized alien planets. A carbon-rich composition could influence the planet’s thermal evolution and plate tectonics, for example, with implications for volcanism, seismic activity, and mountain formation.

credit sci-mews

[bystander]

Ok, we got a girl who is from a planet, then we got a diamond picture who could be from earth but also from other places in space,
I found 55 Cancri:

Yale researchers have discovered that a rocky super-Earth orbiting a nearby star is a diamond planet.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=29743

[Ann]

Bystander, I wasn't even thinking of that planet, but... your answer is brilliant! Brilliant like a diamond, even!

So you may post another puzzle, if you want to. But if you'd rather not, and if anyone is interested in trying to figure out what answer I was looking for, I was referring to a planet (or rather, two planets) in our own solar system.

So which two of the eight planets of our solar system (sorry, Pluto) are the bling-bling planets?

Ann

[MargaritaMc]

Click to view full size image

This is my puzzle. Two answers are equally possible!

Ann

The circles obviously remind us of the rings of Saturn (and Uranus also has rings) but I can NOT get any link between either/both planets and either the diamond OR the clue of the white dwarf rabbit and little girl!

Margarita

[Ann]

Uranus is a perfect answer! Saturn is not. The girl with the white dwarf bunny was there to say, simply, no white dwarfs here!! (And no neutron stars either!)

But those ring-like things are there for a reason, although they are not Saturnian rings but something else.

What does this look like?

In any case, remember that Uranus was one correct answer. What could the other answer be?

Ann

[starstruck]

I'm sure I once read somewhere that it was considered possible that Jupiter might have a pure diamond core, perhaps because of the immense gravitational pressure. Not sure, but would that be about 2 light hours away from us? And I agree about Uranus having rings too, Margarita, and maybe it is that sort of colour too . . so maybe Uranus also has a diamond core? Can't get any clue linked with the rabbit and girl picture either tho'.

[MargaritaMc]

WIKIPEDIA
Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both are of different chemical composition than the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, astronomers sometimes place them in a separate category called "ice giants". Uranus's atmosphere, although similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of hydrocarbons.[12] It is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 K (−224 °C). It has a complex, layered cloud structure, with water thought to make up the lowest clouds, and methane thought to make up the uppermost layer of clouds.[12] In contrast, the interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.[11]

Uranus and Neptune are ICE GIANTS? (Ice is a slang term for diamond). And the two planets both contain water, ice - obviously - and hydrocarbons, which I think have to do with the creation of diamonds? I'm not really knowledgeable about jools!
Margarita

[Beyond]

Jools, jewels or joules. I pick jewels. I think you have solved Ann's fiendishly wicked puzzle, Margarita. Time to take the day off and recuperate

[MargaritaMc]

Jools, jewels or joules. I pick jewels. I think you have solved Ann's fiendishly wicked puzzle, Margarita. Time to take the day off and recuperate

Taking_a_bow.jpeg

My mathematics course starts this week, so I won't be posting a puzzle just now.
Both Moonlady and bystander answered the question, but with different answers to the one Ann was thinking of So, could one of you - or someone else with a suitable brain-teaser - set the next question?

Margarita the (incipient) Mathematician

[Ann]

The 'bling' planets: Huge seas of liquid diamond discovered on Neptune and Uranus

Ann

[bystander]

Bystander, I wasn't even thinking of that planet, but... your answer is brilliant! Brilliant like a diamond, even!

It wasn't my answer, it was Moonlady's. I just provided an internal reference to her answer.

[MargaritaMc]

http://io9.com/5451297/new-evidence-for ... on-neptune
Goodness me!

I followed up the link from the Mail Online to the hyperlink above and then to the abstract clipped below. It's a bit elderly to be posted at The Communications Center - what do you think, bystander?

And I wonder what follow up work, if any, has been done? (I may search later, but right now I must get back to algebra...)

http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v6/ ... s1438.html

Nature Physics 6, 40 - 43 (2010)
Published online: 8 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/nphys1438

Subject Categories: Condensed-matter physics | Materials physics

Melting temperature of diamond at ultrahigh pressure
J. H. Eggert1, D. G. Hicks1, P. M. Celliers1, D. K. Bradley1, R. S. McWilliams1,2, R. Jeanloz2, J. E. Miller3, T. R. Boehly3 & G. W. Collins1

Since Ross proposed that there might be ‘diamonds in the sky’ in 1981 (ref. 1), the idea of significant quantities of pure carbon existing in giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune has gained both experimental2 and theoretical3 support. It is now accepted that the high-pressure, high-temperature behaviour of carbon is essential to predicting the evolution and structure of such planets4. Still, one of the most defining of thermal properties for diamond, the melting temperature, has never been directly measured. This is perhaps understandable, given that diamond is thermodynamically unstable, converting to graphite before melting at ambient pressure, and tightly bonded, being the strongest bulk material known5, 6. Shock-compression experiments on diamond reported here reveal the melting temperature of carbon at pressures of 0.6–1.1 TPa (6–11 Mbar), and show that crystalline diamond can be stable deep inside giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune1, 2, 3, 4, 7. The data indicate that diamond melts to a denser, metallic fluid—with the melting curve showing a negative Clapeyron slope—between 0.60 and 1.05 TPa, in good agreement with predictions of first-principles calculations8. Temperature data at still higher pressures suggest diamond melts to a complex fluid state, which dissociates at shock pressures between 1.1 and 2.5 TPa (11–25 Mbar) as the temperatures increase above 50,000 K.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA
University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, USA

Also
Margarita
PS Just a reminder that I'm not posting a puzzle!

[MargaritaMc]

As no-one has posted a puzzle, here is an easy one.

Margarita

[stephen63]

North by Northwest?

north-by-northwest2.jpg (163.64 KiB) Viewed 1950 times