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 ...
Look at all those sweet little floofs!
Good morning. Did you sleep well?
I’m about ready for the shower, but sometime during the night, I changed my mind about trying to fit Walmart into the schedule for today. I need to go, but I’ll go tomorrow.
Today is just too good to pass up. I’m so close to being done! (And then I can quit blathering about it, right?)
I had a cat. He slobbered on my hands, and they got itchy. I had to get up and wash with soap.
Good morning!
We’re going to Monroe this morning to study runoff for Envirothon. Then Kathleen is going to a birthday party and then we have choir and then we go back and pick up Kathleen.
Here, it’s the same ol’ stuff. Be really busy, fall over, be really busy, fall over, then quit.
First, my letter to Charlie, then the suitcase, then some more of the pantry, then in here. Then, fall over. Get up, repeat.
Good morning. Happy Friday Eve!
It’s already Friday here.
That must have been a long day at work, ArGee. It’s already Friday here, too!
I hope today is an improvement!
Hmmm.
Looks like it’s going to be one of THOSE days.
Happy Friday!
It’s been a long week. I’m taking a workshop in the evenings. 3.5 hours on Monday, 2.5 hours on Wednesday and Thursday. Last night I felt like it was only Wednesday which probably explains the confusion this morning.
I was just being a bit of an imp. I’ve seen several churches in which the Wednesday evening classes are called Sunday School... odd as that may seem...
Wow, that is strange. Let us know what they tell you.
Sounds like a lot of progress!
Yup. I was up before the FReepathon started...
Calling it Wednesday's school is right out...
FYI: “I just used my account successfully. Try deleting your browsing data, three dots upper right, setting, clear browsing data. Restart Edge. Test”
I did that. It worked! Thanks again! You know how to search for this stuff and I don’t. So all I’m sayin’ is, “don’t let anything happen to you!” ;o]
For some reason I thought that yesterday was Friday for most of the morning...
I remember, her name is Addams...
Yup. Wednesday’s child is full of woe...
I had to keep that, Nully! Thanks!
I stole it fair and square from pookie...
pookie always has good ones! Worth keeping, worth sharing!
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