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 ...
Yours! I got a letter today!
Yay! I mailed it Saturday, so I guess that’s not too bad. So much for “three-day delivery” they promised!
G'daft,y'all.
w00t!
It’s nice that you get to see and be seen.
Good one!
Well, I’m still hanging in there, but I’m half-tempted to reschedule this appointment.
And I did. I don’t think it’s smart to force myself to stay up when my body is running a low-grade fever.
Anyway, I’m going to stay up long enough to take my pills and then I’ll head down the hallway.
I was reading a book with Jake.
I was watching a film on pangolins. What precious little creatures! There are so many animals that need protection, and so many cultures that need educating on how to save their natural resources.
</soap box
I’m off to bed! See you tomorrow!
Pangolins are adorable.
Good morning. Happy Humph Day.
Floofy cuddly kitteh!
Good morning.
I hope you had a good night and that you slept well.
The laptop has been acting up this morning. I really was here, but I couldn’t get the programs to respond in a timely manner, so I just shut things down and went to take my shower.
I feel much better this morning, but I’m still going to be a slug today.
Good morning.
If I didn’t get side-tracked so easily, I could actually have conversations with people. ;o]
It is humph day, isn’t it? So, hmpf. (Shorthand)
Good morning. I did have a good night, for a change. Bummer about your laptop, and I hope you have a restful Wednesday.
Good morning. Best wishes for a fine day!
I’m glad your night was good, for a change!
I think the laptop is trying to tell me something, and I hate to think about that.
Thanks! I’ll be right here, most of the day. ;o]
The film is “The World’s Most Wanted Animal,” by Nature-PBS.
I was almost crying, sometimes laughing and in between all that I fell in love.
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