Every woman dreams of receiving a huge sparkling and priceless diamond. Now. scientists have discovered the largest diamond in the universe,
But it's well beyond the reach of the most lovestruck men-- 50 light years to be precise. Space scientists revealed that they had diseovered a ten billion trillion trillion carat gem. Measuring 2,500 miles across and weighing five million trillion trillion pounds, the rock was found on Valentine's Day buried in the core of a white dwarf star(白矮星) in the constellation Centaurus(人马座)"
It's the mother of all diamonds," said Travis Metcalfe, who led the team of researchers at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in America!"
You would need a jewelry's loupe《小型放大镜) the size of the Sun to grade this diamond." Named Lucy, after the Beatles' song Lucy in the sky with Diamonds, the rock has sent a ripple of excitement through the scientific world.
The largest diamond found on earth was the 3106-carat(克拉) Cullinan. It was cut into nine major stones, including the 530-carat Star of Africa now a part of the Crown Jewels. Diamonds were first discovered in India more than 2800 years ago. The Ancient Romans believed that the stones were thin and sharp pieces of stars that had fallen downward to earth.
In Ancient Egypt diamonds were symbols of eternity (承恒) and were used in funeral ceremonies.In the Middle Ages men wore them to symbolize their courage, strength and energy. The tradition of giving them as love tokens dates from 1477, when Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave a diamond ring 1o Mary of Burgundy.