Posted on 06/11/2021 11:51:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire, and is approximately 2 billion years old. (Image credit: D. Finnin/Copyright AMNH)
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What does the legendary Star of India — a 563-carat star sapphire the size of a golf ball — have in common with a 35-million-year-old petrified redwood slab; a massive cluster of sword-like crystals that looks like it came from "Game of Thrones;" and a 5-ton (4.5-metric ton) stone pillar that can "sing?"
You can see all of them, along with 5,000 other amazing stones, in the newly renovated Mignone Hall of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, which is reopening after a four-year closure on Saturday (June 12). There, one-of-a-kind precious gems appear alongside odd-looking rocks — some of which date to billions of years ago — that have been uniquely warped and twisted by extreme temperatures and pressures.
Individually and together, these objects tell a story of the diverse geologic processes that shape minerals on Earth's surface and deep inside our planet, beginning when the world was young and continuing to this day, museum representatives told Live Science.
Related: 13 mysterious and cursed gemstones
The Star of India, which formed about a billion years ago, was discovered in Sri Lanka in the 18th century. It is one of the best-known gems in the world, in part because it was famously and brazenly stolen from AMNH in 1964, along with several more of the museum's prized stones, by a pair of thieves named Jack "Murf the Surf" Murphy and Allan Kuhn, Smithsonian reported in 2014, on the heist's 50th anniversary. (The one-of-a-kind sapphire was recovered and went back on display in 1965).
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Do the FIDO folks over at Boston Dynamics know anything about this?
Good Happy Hmpf Day to you, ArGee!
And thanks for the kitteh!
I hope your job is going well.
Getting impatient...
YAY!!!!
You made it!!! WOO-HOO!!!
Now I gotta get back to work. :-(
I love my job, but we are stupid busy. *hugs*
Backatcha! Later!
The job is good, thanks. I like working from here better than NYC. But the Mayor needs to get people into the City and buying things.
He could try to reduce crime, but apparently that’s a bridge too far.
At least the governor resigned. I was thinking that in our current crazy environment he might have been able to ride it all out.
Static generator is on the floor in 3..2..1..
Yes, I thought perhaps the Working From Home part of your job was a definite bonus, but you’re right about the other part, as well.
Corruption seems to be contagious, and it seems to infest from the top down, instead of the other way around.
How’s puppy?
The illustrious power company is shutting us down today and tomorrow to make improvements on the local grid.
At least that’s what they want us to believe!
I’ll probably be even more scarce today than usual...
Don’t forget that NV is (not) run by liberals...
Didn’t used to be.
We’re scheduled for day 2 of the two days of work, so tomorrow is the day of darkness...
When I first moved there, it was most a Red state, but then The Smurfs got in and I had about as much of it as I could stand. Along with other things. Of course, when Sisolak “won” the election, I had to say goodbye to my home state. I hate to tell anyone I was born there.
Puppy is getting used to having me here again. She just had some booster shots and the vet is happy with her health.
Probably not or kinda looking suspiciously at each other in a “who is playing for the other team” way.
Maybeee.
I’m glad to hear puppy is doing well.
No more seizures? You’re all in my prayers, anyway!
;o]
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