- Who
- BPM 37093
- What
- first
- Where
- ()
- When
The first direct evidence that white dwarf interiors crystallise into huge diamonds was announced in February 2004. Observations of pulsations of BPM 37093 allowed astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, to deduce that the carbon white dwarf had crystallised into a diamond some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across. BPM 37093 is around 50 light years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. Many astronomers have believed for decades that white dwarfs could solidify into huge diamonds, but this is the first direct evidence. White dwarfs are the cooling cores of dead stars. They are made of carbon and only shine from residual heat as they gradually cool.
