“The largest diamond so far found in the universe is the size of a small planet and located 50 light-years away in the constellation  Centaurus. Astronomers with the Harvard -Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the gigantic stone a few ears ago and they believe the 2,500-mile-wide diamond once served as the heart of a star. It’s ten billion trillion trillion carats. The astronomers named it Lucy in honor of the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

– Smithsonian Magazine, June 2008

photo credit: Adan Garcia

A ten billion trillion trillion (!) carat diamond, a three-and-a-half-million-year old hominid fossil,  and a multi-million-selling Beatles song. How many more awesome things in the universe are named Lucy, anyway?