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You guys thought I forgot about this, huh?

The next part of the '2012 Planetary Dragon Series!' I am proud to announce that this is...the second-to-last piece! Will there be a 2013 Series? Inshallah. I'll have to see where I am in life...or the world. (I mention that because I'm considering the military. )

Anyway, may I present, the Diamond Planet dragon!

I dunno if any of you heard, you might've, that a couple years ago there was an insane discovery. A planet was found that was quite heavy, billions of years old, and in a relationship with a rapidly-spinning pulsar. Several times the density of water, the weight of the planet confused scientists, who proposed that, instead of hydrogen and helium, it must be comprised of carbon and oxygen. And...what happens to carbon over millions of years and in an extreme environment? Huh? Huh? *raises eyebrows...sexily*

The proposed carbon content of the planet/star/thing means that it is likely that the...I'm going to call in an 'object,' is crystalline in nature, and likely diamond-like. How did it reach this state? It's because it has a nasty neighbor that's a spinning liability, that's why. And spinning is right - the object's neighbor is a particularly rare pulsar, a 'millisecond' pulsar, which means that it is spinning at speeds of hundreds of rotations per second. This intense spinning creates x-rays that can be detected by earth, and scientists believe that the nature of this hyperactive pulsar actually stripped the object of it's skin, basically.

So what was the 'object' before it lost hard in galactic strip poker? Most likely, it was a white dwarf star, the tiny remnant of a large star of several solar masses. The now-planet is only about 0.1% or less of the original mass of the star. So that's why I've been calling it 'object' and names with slashes. It's kind of hard to name... A binary star...white dwarf...planet...most epic diamond ring ever. I really can't decide what exactly to call it, but the latter sounds the coolest.

Who else wants to go grab that thing, polish it, and market it as 'OMG INTERGALACTIC SPACE DIAMOND RINGS?' Of course, then we'd probably lower the cost of diamonds due to the supply shock. But...I dunno. The conditions for this to actually happen are likely to be extremely exclusive, only occurring under the weirdest conditions...like having a psycho neighbor with a spinning fetish. Scientists are currently trying to figure out just how rare this discovery is...

So if you think this is pretty spectacular, just remember that we've only explored about 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of space. Now, go forth, and let your mind be blown as you try to imagine what other crazy, intense, and epic discoveries the coming years shall bring us.



To the dragon...who has been ignored up until now. *deep breath* He's FANCY. And he knows he's fancy. Just look at him, admiring himself in his shiny, mirror, ball of light, thing. (He's so narcissistic. Of course, wouldn't you be, if you were made of solid diamond???) The design of the dragon him/herself was intended to draw attention to that tiny light-ball and aura exactly, emphasizing the incredible beauty of such a rare, and relatively, in space terms, little, discovery.

The first series gallery folder: [link]
The second series folder: [link]
The third series folder: [link]
This series folder:
[link]

Enjoy!
Art/series (c) me.
Rippers will be nuked and swiftly disposed of!
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