What is the estimated worth of a planet made entirely of diamond?

[42Physics]

Planet PSR J1719- 14386 is a planet completely made of diamond. I've wondered what the estimated worth of the planet's material, perhaps you guys know?

 

[marcus]

Planet PSR J1719- 14386 is a planet completely made of diamond. I've wondered what the estimated worth of the planet's material, perhaps you guys know?

You have a typo. the "6" is really a lowercase letter b.

Here is the Wikipedia article FWIW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_J1719-1438_b

What is now called a "planet" used to be a star belonging to a binary system. but the other star stripped away most of the mass, leaving a core remnant that is only about the mass of Jupiter.

The cores of many stars consist largely of diamond, and if the outer layers are stripped off during red giant stage then that is what you would get, a planet size mass of carbon crystal, i.e. diamond.

 

[mfb]

0, if you consider the shipping costs.
Something with many digits, if you just consider current diamond market prices.
Something with less digits, if you account for the flooded market.
Probably not much: if you have advanced technology to reach that planet, artificial diamonds will be even more common than today.

 

[42Physics]

Somebody is thinking real technical here!

 

[Number Nine]

If you have a planet made out of something, it's common enough to be worthless.

 

[42Physics]

I think all of you obviously lack the common sense to get the question.

 

[davenn]

I think all of you obviously lack the common sense to get the question.

I think ... considering how basic your question was, you got some quite respectable replies

what more were you looking for ??

Dave

 

[Drakkith]

I think all of you obviously lack the common sense to get the question.

Common sense tells me it's worth nothing because we can't get to it.

 

[Chronos]

Well, it would bankrupt De Beers if you could mine that monster. Supply and demand. Diamonds would be worth about as much as pea gravel.

 

[julcab12]

If we have the technology to harness it. We might as well be better creating it.^^

 

[TheTechNoir]

Yeah, would also be far cheaper, less dangerous, and less time consuming to raid Russia's hoard too.

 

[ImaLooser]

Planet PSR J1719- 14386 is a planet completely made of diamond. I've wondered what the estimated worth of the planet's material, perhaps you guys know?

You could calculate some astronomical value, but this is a meaningless game. Even today the price of diamonds is artificially propped up by a cartel. They could be sold for much less than they are. It is also possible to produce diamonds artificially. It could be that diamonds will become cheap and common before long.

If somehow a big chunk of a diamond planet could be imported to Earth cheaply then diamonds would become very cheap.

 

[TheTechNoir]

Yep. And we couldn't exactly predict if humans will be around or what the price of diamond will be, etc, etc, in the immensely deep into the future time that they would arrive back here at.

EDIT: Not to mention, 'big chunk' of a diamond planet... I wouldn't exactly feel comfortable with that entering into our atmosphere and coming down to the surface of the planet. Highly massive body of near or pure diamond? No thanks. And I imagine to control it's descent so as not to be a hazard would cost an outrageous amount that would be much more than the value of the diamond itself.

 

[CodyParks]

I think he was asking how much it's worth not considering how we will get there and such. You guys are thinking way too much in depth...

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I think he was asking how much it's worth not considering how we will get there and such. You guys are thinking way too much in depth...

Welcome to the forums. IMO one shouldn't ask a technical question if one doesn't want a technical answer. We can't estimate the price of getting there and bringing it back because we don't have the technology to get there and bring diamond and so cannot estimate the cost of its R&D and deployment. Even if you waved all that away and proposed we had some cheap method of bringing chunks of that planet to Earth you're now entering the realm of economic speculation (what is the value of diamond when it is ubiquitous) and the answer is likely to be worthless.

Note that no one has yet demonstrated it is possible to earn a profit by acquiring resources from space rather than terrestrial means.

 

[CodyParks]

Thank you for the welcoming.

I disagree. It doesn't really matter how we get there, how we can sell it, who we will sell it to, etc. He's asking a simple question that is about how much that costs, if you can't figure it out then just say so. He didn't ask a technical question. If he asked how we can get there, then these would be perfect answers.

But I do know what you are saying, Ryan. But I think it just doesn't apply with the question he has.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Thank you for the welcoming.

I disagree. It doesn't really matter how we get there, how we can sell it, who we will sell it to, etc. He's asking a simple question that is about how much that costs, if you can't figure it out then just say so. He didn't ask a technical question. If he asked how we can get there, then these would be perfect answers.

But I do know what you are saying, Ryan. But I think it just doesn't apply with the question he has.

~2*10³³$(two million billion billion billion dollars)
Here you go. This is assuming 1 million $ per kilogram of diamonds.
Even if the price of diamonds were to drop to 1 cent per kilogram, it'd be still ~10²⁵$.

Of course, the problems with this numbers are innumerable, but I suppose if somebody feels they can visualise the bulk of the planet in dollars rather than kilograms or Earth masses, let them - as long as they understand it's not a real number.

 

[CodyParks]

That is an answer worth posting.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Thank you for the welcoming.

I disagree. It doesn't really matter how we get there, how we can sell it, who we will sell it to, etc. He's asking a simple question that is about how much that costs, if you can't figure it out then just say so. He didn't ask a technical question. If he asked how we can get there, then these would be perfect answers.

But I do know what you are saying, Ryan. But I think it just doesn't apply with the question he has.

He asked how much it was worth. Without taking into account all the factors you aren't going to get a decent answer. Simplistically the worth of something is dependent on how desirable it is and how difficult it is to obtain. Without taking into account how to get a planet of diamond and without taking into account the effect of demand such market flooding would have you're not going to get a good answer.

Sure we could run back of the envelope calculations to our hearts content but if we want to learn something we'd be better off tackling the question properly. This topic is a great resource for exploring all manner of fields from various value theories to the obstacles of interstellar travel. It is intellectually demeaning to settle for a superficially correct but fundamentally flawed answer.

That is an answer worth posting.

No, this is the wrong answer. It's as flawed as saying "if a spacecraft can accelerate to 0.5C in 1 year then in 20 years it will be traveling at 10x the speed of light". It's the type of answer that ignores a great deal of reality and thus isn't an answer.

 

[turbo]

We can't get other planets now - not even the closest ones. How to steal that planet?

In terms of worth, what would happen to the price of gold if you could haul in a whole planet made of gold? Diamond is not rare, despite what DeBeeres would like you to think. Bring in mine-able planet of diamond, and we would be paving our streets with it. Its physical properties are impressive.

 

[berkeman]

He didn't ask a technical question.

Good point. Then it doesn't belong in the PF technical forums. We deal with science, not fantasy. Thread is closed.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I know this is closed but I just remembered something extremely relevant today: The diamond-water paradox. In short the problem is that despite water being far more useful to humans diamond is far more valuable. It is resolved by understanding marginality. This is a succinct example of what I and others were getting at and nicely caps the thread.