Imagine a planet made of diamond.
Photo by Haven Giguere. Artist's rendition of the diamond planet.
It exists.
According to National Geographic, this planet, which has been given the unimaginative name “55 Cancri e,” is twice the size of earth but has eight times its mass. At least a third of the planet is composed of pure diamond.
I am endlessly fascinated by astronomy and the discoveries that are being made about the universe. I love to read about the vastness of space, the variety and mind-boggling number of planets, galaxies, moons, suns and objects that are out there. In my recent book, Pieces of Heaven: Recognizing the Presence of God, I write about the discovery last year of the most massive and distant clouds of water ever found in the universe. The National Geographic article reporting on that discovery says the giant cloud of mist weighs forty billion times the mass of earth. The water in this cloud is enough to fill all the oceans on earth 140 trillion times.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t just skim over facts like that. They stop me. I have to let my imagination play with what such an enormous body of water would look like and how it could possibly even exist. Or when I read that a diamond planet is floating out there in space, I wonder how—and why—could that be true. It pushes my mind to the Creator of such a universe. Why would God put a diamond planet out there? Why would he create that vast space-cloud of water? For fun? Just because he can? For variety? What, if anything, will he ever do with that planet or that water?
I know that these amazing astronomical facts don’t “prove” the existence of God, but for someone like me, who already believes in God the Creator, such stories fill me with awe.
For now, at least for humans, the diamond planet is not of much practical value. All that diamond material certainly has potential value, if only you could get to it. If you plan to go there, the first problem you’ll have to overcome is the distance. The diamond planet is about 40 light years away (a light year is about six trillion miles). Even if you could get there, I should warn you that the temperature is about 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit.
A writer for Forbes magazine tried to estimate the value of this diamond-laden planet and came up with the figure $26.9 nonillion. In case you haven’t had a reason to use the word “nonillion” lately, this amount is 26.9 followed by thirty zeroes. The writer, Peter Cohan, explains, “To put those $26.9 nonillion into perspective, think about the Earth’s GDP – The World Bank estimated global GDP at about $70 trillion in 2011. The Diamond Planet is worth 384 quadrillion times more than Earth’s GDP.”
That amount of wealth sounds almost worth traveling 40 light years to acquire. But for me, the real value of the diamond planet is that is shows God’s extravagance. Astronomers say that the universe may contain 100 billion galaxies. Let that sink in for a moment. The vastness of the universe is overwhelming, but I gratefully want to make the most of my time that I have been given as a tiny, conscious being on this tiny planet. As a Christian, I believe I am so small that there is nothing I can do to earn significance in such a universe. My puny attempts would be laughable, but God’s love for me—the fact that the Creator of all this cares for me and has made a way for me to enter eternity—makes me valuable.
Now, even as I contemplate these mysteries, I just came across a news story reporting a significant new discovery—a planet with four suns…
Comments 7
It is interesting to read this discovery of the diamond planet on your blog post, Dr. Bentz. I remember reading this scientific discovery in Korean web newspaper, and thought that what is the point of finding the planet covered with diamond while it does not help anything at all, for sustaining life of any sort of life forms. In fact, diamond is quite common sort of minerals that are abundant even in the planet we current live in.
Contemporary Christians connect their thoughts to the creation of the universe or scientific discoveries to vindicate the existence of God, which form of thought that was not vigorously attempted before generations. As a “semi-linguist” who had to learn English in tough ways, I can see the follies of language play that Derrida mentioned in his essays, within the change of Christian perspective or contemporary theological ideas as well. In other words, this limitation of expressing our thoughts in certain ways, such as language, art, or math formulas, influencing heavily on our understanding, so to called, of “the mind of God.”
One ironic aspect is, mankind’s limitation of understanding objects is oftentimes justified in various forms as if they are truth, under the influence of elitism and military forces. Who knows what God the Creator thinks, anyhow with our tedious rationality? We cannot even take care of economical hardships that happening in this contemporary generation. It seems all we have left is vexation after vexation. Interesting thinking, anyways. Appreciate your generosity to allow me to share my thoughts on your blog.
My hope would be that these things exist because they must. I like to think that because everything in our universe was God inspired that it also makes sense, and though what seems to be confusing to us we have a hope at discovering the truth about them. It is comparable to trying to read a text in a language that you are only slightly familiar with; the words might seem random and inconsistent, but that it because they are part of a bigger truth that requires a much higher plane of thought to understand. I don’t mean to say that God is bound by logic; only that he respects our view of it enough to not tamper with our view of it.
As a science major, I am endlessly in wonder of the amazing things God has created. I like to think that he just put the diamond planet in the galaxy just for fun! Maybe God likes diamonds and His diamond planet makes Him happy when He sees it. I also think that God has a sense of humor. He knows that His children will probably spend countless hours figuring out how to get to this planet, because as humans, so many of us care first and foremost about money. However, with this, God can say, “Not everything I have created is physically possible for you to aquire. Rely on me, trust in me. I will provide you with financial help when you need it. I am what matters most. Money and things, like diamonds, don’t matter in the scheme of life. Place your treasure in your relationship with me.”
God has created so many amazing things. I love reading about the new scientific discoveries and thinking about what they mean for humans, for me as a Christian. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the diamond planet. How cool!
It never ceases to amaze me how creative God is. Something such as diamonds, which to us are so valuable for rarity, compose a large percentage of a planet! I think that if we had access to this planet and were able to harvest the diamonds, they would probably become less valuable to us because of their abundance. But, that being said, as you say in your article; it would be extremely difficult for that to become a reality.
I think that often we either categorize God as some distant deity that reigns over the universe with a judgmental spirit, or as an overindulgent God who would not harm a fly. I think that Creation shows us from its scientific laws and boundaries that He is a mix of the two. We see his sense of humour everywhere. To me, the fact that this diamond planet is out of our reach, demonstrates His sense of irony and humour. I think of the platypus and think that only a God with a sense of humour could have created it. When I hear of this diamond planet or space-cloud of water, I think of all the wonderful and puzzling things that God has put here to keep us thinking of Him.
This post really puts things into perspective. It is so easy to get lost in the mundane world. It is easy to forget how significant God’s love for each of us is. We are so tiny. I am from the Pacific Northwest, where going outside on a clear summer night means seeing millions of stars. When seeing that many stars, it is hard to think that those are only a fraction of the stars in the universe. The fact that our galaxy is only a small part of all existence is mind-blowing. The thought of how large the galaxy is occasionally leads to the thought of other worlds. It is easy to think that we are not the only humans in existence. Even if we aren’t the only ones, God still cares for us. He sent His only son onto our Earth. That fact is amazing to me. When looking at those facts, it is hard for me to find reasons why someone shouldn’t believe in God as the Creator of the universe.
I found it funny that people were actually calculating how much the diamond planet would be worth and if it was even possible to get to the planet. It made me wonder how is it that they would even be able to get that diamond back to Earth and cash it in, if there isn’t even enough money in the world to pay for it. If you can’t get your money’s worth for the diamond then what’s the point of having it? These are just some of the things that came to mind when reading this post. Reading this also reminded me how quick people are to try and figure everything out about something new. Humans are by nature curious creatures so it’s understandable that we are so fascinated by this diamond planet and are trying to figure everything about it. I think that this type of curiosity applies to everything even our faith. For example if something miraculous happens, many people try to find a reason for why it happened and how exactly could it have happened. People will have their scientific explanations for the event and people will have their biblical explanations for the event.
I think that God both creates and allows many things to happen in this world that do not necessarily need an explanation. I think that if something is important and God wants us to know of it and its importance he will provide ways for us to figure it out, even if it takes a while. With that said, maybe the diamond planet is just something that God did not necessarily create directly, but allowed it to happen by either interfering or not interfering somewhere in the process of this diamond planet’s formation. And perhaps it’s not something that should be of great importance to us.
Hi Dr. Bentz,
Space and its vastness is also intriguing to me. This semester I read _The Divine Comedy_, and during _The Paradiso_, Dante is described as shooting through space at immeasurable speeds. Throughout, he sees some amazing sights, the last which is of course his Beatific vision. Though this is ultimately a work of fantasy, the awe and wonder the universe inspires in me is not too different from the awe and wonder I had reading about Dante’s journey. And it is awe and wonder I am left with. This blog entry reminds me of Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” Though it is definitely interesting to wonder why there is a diamond planet in space and trying to describe space with words, more often than not looking up in perfect silence at the stars is the only valid response to their existence.