UV Rays Shed New Light on the Hope Diamond’s Mysterious Red Glow
Hundreds of rare precious gemstones are on display in the Gems and Minerals Galleries at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. According to Dr. Jeff Post, curator of the United States National Gem and Mineral Collection and avid mineralogist, few of those gems garner more attention than the world famous and Smithsonian’s own, Hope Diamond. With its breathtaking beauty and mysterious past, the Hope Diamond intrigues millions of museum visitors each year; but beyond its rumored curse, the world’s largest blue diamond is proving to be a unique scientific specimen.
The 45.52-carat blue diamond puzzles scientists because of the fiery red glow it gives off for several minutes after being exposed to ultra-violet light. Scientists refer to this phenomenon as phosphorescence. “It looks like a glowing orange coal in your barbeque grill,” explains Post. “It has been described as one of the unique properties of this unique diamond, something special to the Hope Diamond.” No comprehensive studies on the nature of the phosphorescence exist, which has made Dr. Jeff Post question the impressive glow for years. “There didn’t seem to be a lot of consistency, or certainly no quantification of the nature of the phosphorescence,” Post says. Thus, he and a team of researchers took on the challenge to dispel the deep dark secrets of the Hope Diamond.
The 45.52 carat Hope Diamond is in a platinum setting surrounded by sixteen white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds designed by Pierre Cartier in about 1910. Photograph by Chip Clark.
In a curious effort, Post and colleagues from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Ocean Optics Instrument Company, and Penn State University eagerly snagged the Hope Diamond from its glass enclosure, along with the world’s second largest deep-blue diamond, the Blue Heart Diamond, and blue diamonds from the Aurora Butterfly of Peace, a temporary collection of 240 colored gemstones. They hand carried the gems to the Smithsonian’s highly secure blue room vault, where hundreds of the museum’s most expensive and rare gems are located. Using a portable instrument that measures wavelengths of light, known as a spectrometer, the researchers exposed each diamond to ultra-violet light in order to measure the intensity of light given off, and the rate at which it faded. As reported in the January 2008 issue of the journal Geology, the researchers developed a better understanding of phosphorescence behavior, and to their pleasant surprise, discovered a way to essentially “fingerprint” blue diamonds.
Hard stuff
Diamonds are very very hard, so hard that they rate a 10 out of 10 on Mohs scale of mineral hardness.Now two rare natural substance have been discovered that are both harder than diamond.
The first, wurtzite boron nitride has a similar structure to diamond, but is made up of different atoms.
The second, the mineral lonsdaleite, or hexagonal diamond is made from carbon atoms just like diamond, but they are arranged in a different shape.
Only small amounts of wurtzite boron nitride and lonsdaleite exist naturally or have been made in the lab so until now no one had realised their superior strength. A simulation showed that wurtzide boron nitride could withstand 18% more stress than diamond, and lonsdaleite 58% more. If the results are confirmed with physical experiments, both materials would be far harder than any substance ever measured.
Illustrator tutorial: The Perfect Diamond
Drawing a diamond is pretty simple in illustrator. First, let’s do some research on the anatomy of a diamond. We don’t want to do some fancy cut and get rejected by our clients. Here’s a proportional diamond line art taken from the website. We will use this as a guide to help us create a perfect diamond.
More Richies!!
Who knew there were so many rich people out there…and in a recession no less! Well, thank God there are because you’ll see more of them tonight on “How’d You Get So Rich?” at 10pm on TV Land Prime.
Tonight, I’ll meet the inventor of the five-chamber bubble blower who is so rich his dog has a walk-in closet and a private chef. This pampered pooch also has a psychiatrist because at times, he gets stressed out. How stressed can you be if you’re able to lean over and lick your own genitals?
I’ll also drop in on a couple whose mansion has its own elevator and the wife’s diamond has its own zip code. My kind of girl!
How'd they get so rich? Watch TV Land Prime at 10pm tonight and find out.
A Guide to Understanding Diamonds and GIA Grading Reports
GIA wants you to understand exactly what you’re buying when shopping for your diamond. As creators of the 4Cs and the International Diamond Grading System™, GIA set the standards for diamond grading and has been helping consumers make educated diamond buying decisions for over 50 years.
GIA’s D-to-Z color-grading scale, Flawless-to-I3 clarity-grading scale, and Excellent-to-Poor cut-grading scale are all recognized by gem and jewelry professionals everywhere. And, by extension, the GIA Diamond Grading Report, Diamond Dossier®, and Gemological Identification Report are considered to be the world’s premier evaluations of gem quality and authenticity.