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Things you don't say out loud
It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
51–60 of 77 posts
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#52The WP article says that "Most lab-grown stones are produced via a blasting process..." This is not true.
Where "lab-grown stones" means gem quality diamonds, they're produced by microwave-activated plasma chemical vapor deposition.
Some small-diameter diamond abrasives and nano diamonds are produced with explosives. Nothing bigger than a few microns in diameter, AFAIK.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is it that it bothers you that it's a Greek name and not that there's a planet named after the sky?
It's not named after the sky. It's named after the God of the Sky, which doesn't bother me any more than other planetary bodies being named after deities of couriers, beauty, war, thunder, agriculture, ocean, the underworld, and so on. The main reasons to rename Uranus is 1) consistency and 2) the puns. Either name it Caelus to be consistent with the naming convention used for the other planets or name it Ouranos to…
Is it really worth the waste of time it would be to debate this at the IAU and the confusion it would cause? Dwarf planets don't follow any set mythology (e.g., Makemake follows Easter Island mythology). Most people aren't experts of Greek and Roman mythology. The English language is full of inconsistencies.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#54SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.
Yeah, DeBeers has already had a rough century. Now this? When will they get a break?
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#55Book recommendation: The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein. One of the things handled in the plot is the fictional assertion that the moon is covered in diamonds.
Seeing the story about water on Luna reminded me of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And now the public library copy is on my desk.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#56In The Killing Star, by Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski, there's a section where a submarine-like vessel explores the depths of Neptune. They find diamonds there.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#57I once said in a college paper that what gets listed as scarce resources will change as we venture into space. #thisisawesome
It'll still be scarce because it's still under diamond producing pressure! No submarine is going to be able to dive down and get them.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#58I once said in a college paper that what gets listed as scarce resources will change as we venture into space. #thisisawesome
It'll still be scarce because it's still under diamond producing pressure! No submarine is going to be able to dive down and get them.
Eh, my point is this bears out the principle behind my idea, not that we can readily mine these specific diamonds.
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always preferred "Terra" or "Gaia" to "Earth." It could be a preference from video games, or maybe it’s because the common usage and being a synonym for ground and dirt has made the word seem ”low-brow” and the alternatives classy, exotic or poetic, and if their popularity was reversed we would think "Earth" was a classier word, but still. “Terrans” will always sound better than “Earthlings” however. :)
Where did the name Earth come from? https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/earth It is a common word in many languages and it has many forms like Ard or Erd or Jord. The other word for earth that is also very common is zameen, but that means land.
You can usually look up etymologies on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Earth#Etymology
Earth comes "from Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe (“earth; Earth”), from Proto-Germanic erþō (“earth”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁er- (“earth”)."
Also (from the page for lowercase "earth"): "Probably unrelated, and of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”)). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʾarṣ́- (whence Arabic أَرْض (ʾarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ (ʾereṣ)) is probably not related."
Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
#60Can we officially rename Uranus to Caelus? Uranus (more accurately, Ouranos) is a Greek god. Besides Earth, all the other planets are named after Roman gods, thus Uranus should be named Caelus to be consistent.
I've always preferred "Terra" or "Gaia" to "Earth." It could be a preference from video games, or maybe it’s because the common usage and being a synonym for ground and dirt has made the word seem ”low-brow” and the alternatives classy, exotic or poetic, and if their popularity was reversed we would think "Earth" was a classier word, but still. “Terrans” will always sound better than “Earthlings” however. :)
"Terra" means ground/dirt in Latin just as much as "earth" does in English.