Did You know?...Lucy, the Diamond Star

This month, when Paul McCartney is in town, Elizabeth Cocking turns her gaze towards BPM 37093 otherwise known as “Lucy, the Diamond Star”.

BPM 37093 is a white dwarf star with a core of crystalised carbon or large chunks of diamonds. Because of this, Lucy is nicknamed the ‘diamond star’.

Image created by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The name ‘Lucy’ is inspired by the legendary Beatles song, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’.

Lucy is located in the constellation Centaurus, 50 light-years away from Earth.

The diamond core is about 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros.

Lucy is only about two-thirds the size of Earth however its mass is about the same as the Sun, a lot of weight in a tiny ball. It is very dim and shines with only 1/2000th of the Sun’s brightness.