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Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you stupendous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora perform a gorgeous acoustic version of “Diamond Ring,” a ballad they co-wrote with Desmond Child in 1988.

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Featuring romantic lyrics, seamless harmonies and a memorable guitar solo by Sambora, “Diamond Ring” tells the story of a man who is head-over-heels in love and wants the world to know.

They sing, “Diamond ring, wear it on your hand / It’s gonna tell the world, I’m your only man / Diamond ring, diamond ring / Baby, you’re my everything, diamond ring.”

During a 1995 concert, Bon Jovi told fans that “Diamond Ring” was one of his favorite collaborations with Sambora, but also recounted how it was the only song the duo ever “rewrote and rewrote and rewrote.”

“Diamond Ring” was originally intended to be released on the group’s 1988 album New Jersey, but didn’t quite make it. Then it was reworked and recorded for 1992’s Keep the Faith album. Again, it didn’t quite make it. Finally, the song was perfected and released as the 14th track of 1995’s These Days.

Many critics and fans regard These Days as Bon Jovi’s best album. It charted in 21 countries, including #1 spots in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK.

John Francis Bongiovi, Jr., was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, in 1962. A blood relative of Frank Sinatra, a young Bon Jovi spent much of his youth skipping school to pursue musical activities. By the time he was 16, he was already playing in New Jersey clubs.

In 1980, while sweeping floors at his cousin Tony Bongiovi’s recording studio, Bon Jovi got the opportunity to sing on a Star Wars Christmas album. His first official credit was on a release called “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Bon Jovi told late night host Jimmy Kimmel that he earned $183 for that gig.

By 1983, Bon Jovi had formed the group that bears his name. Over the past 41-plus years, the group has sold more than 120 million records and performed more than 2,700 concerts in 50 countries. Bon Jovi and Sambora were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.

Also born in Perth Amboy, the 65-year-old Sambora is best known as the lead guitarist of Bon Jovi from 1983 to 2013. He and lead singer Jon Bon Jovi wrote many of the group's most memorable songs, including "Livin' on a Prayer," "It's My Life" and "Diamond Ring."

Trivia: Sambora has collected more than 130 guitars, a third of which are Fender Stratocasters.

Please check out the video of Bon Jovi and Sambora belting out perfect harmonies during a live performance of “Diamond Ring” at 02 Arena in London in 2010. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Diamond Ring”
Written by Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child and Richard Sambora. Performed by Bon Jovi and Sambora.

Diamond ring, wear it on your hand
It’s gonna tell the world, I’m your only man
Diamond ring, diamond ring
Baby, you’re my everything, diamond ring

Red, red rose brought it home to you
Blood red rose, tells me that you’re true
Red, red rose, blood-red rose
Like a fire inside that grows, blood-red rose

When you’re hungry, I will fill you up
When you’re thirsty, drink out of my loving cup
When you’re crying, I’ll be the tears for you
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for you

When you’re hungry, I will fill you up
When you’re thirsty, drink out of my loving cup
When you’re crying, I’ll be the tears for you
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for you

You know, I bleed every night you sleep
‘Cause I don’t know if I’m in your dreams
I want to be your everything…

Diamond ring, wear it on your hand
It’s gonna tell the world, I’m your only man
Diamond ring, diamond ring
Baby, you’re my everything, diamond ring
Darling, you’re my everything, diamond ring
Now, you’ve got me on your string… She wears a diamond ring

Credit: Screen capture via YouTube / Nikita.

Twenty-four sapphire discs etched with 100 billion pixels of information illustrating the "very essence of humanity" will be sealed in a time capsule and delivered to the moon in 2027. The sapphire discs are designed to last millions of years.

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Imagined by French engineer Benoit Faiveley and his team of international scientists, researchers, designers and artists, "The Sanctuary Project" is intended to serve as a repository of human achievements. It aims to pass on an intelligible message to future generations of humans, but also to other intelligent life forms, through universal symbols of our knowledge and culture.

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“We hope Sanctuary will constitute a ‘cosmic hello’ to our descendants or perhaps even visitors from elsewhere," Faiveley explained. "It will be a variegated portrait of our species engraved in micropixels – up to 7 billion per disc.”

The body of work included on the sapphire discs was curated by a multidisciplinary group of 11 renowned scientists, engineers, astrophysicists, paleontologists, cosmologists and artists.

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Sapphire was chosen as the preferred medium to preserve the information because of its hardness and durability. Sapphire rates a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale (only diamond is harder) and can withstand the extreme temperatures of the lunar surface. "The Sanctuary Project" is confident the information lasered onto the discs will be unaltered for millions of years.

All of the information contained on the discs will be readable with the naked eye or by using a simple magnifying glass. What's more, the pixels aren't colored with pigments, which can fade over time in extreme temperatures.

The team rejected storing information on digital devices — hard drives, CDs, DVDs, or USB keys — because it's unlikely future generations or otherworldly beings would possess the proper equipment to decipher the code.

The sapphire discs contain between 3 billion and 7 billion pixels of information. Amazingly, that vast amount of information can fit on a wafer thin disc measuring only 100mm (3.9 in) in diameter.

The discs will not only include examples of mathematics, culture, paleontology, art and science, but also the human genome. According to the group, this presentation of our human, cultural and scientific legacy has been made with the ambition of telling the story of who we are, what we know and what we do.

In 2027, the 24 discs will be tightly packed into a container made of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and transported to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program. Aluminum was chosen because of its hardness, durability and light weight.

The Sanctuary Project team chose to preserve the discs on the moon because it has a far less volatile environment than the Earth.

"With its ancient surface impervious to flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes, the moon is an ideal location for such an archival time capsule," noted author, historian and Sanctuary team member Michael Benson.

Credits: Disc titled "Space" is one of 24 heading to the moon. ©Sanctuary On The Moon; Benoit Faiveley inspects one of the 24 discs. ©Benedict Redgrove; Faiveley looks at the "Life" disc on the WILDER images wall at INRIA Paris Saclay research center. ©Benedict Redgrove.

With the Summer Olympics in Paris heating up, it’s time to take a closer look at what the coveted medals are actually made of and attempt to noodle out what they'd be worth if someone was silly enough to sell them for their melt value.

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Conceived by luxury jeweler Chaumet and the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission, the gold, silver and bronze medals of the 2024 Olympics all feature a unique design element. At the center of every medal is an 18-gram hexagonal slice of iron from the actual Eiffel Tower. So, in calculating the value of the three types of medals, we needed to consider the current value of four materials, gold, silver, copper — and iron.

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First, it's important to underscore that the Olympic gold medals are made mostly of silver. In fact, the 529-gram 2024 edition contains only 6 grams of gold, as mandated by the International Olympic Committee.

With the spot price for gold at about $2,391 per ounce, the gold in the medal is worth about $504.50. The iron slice of Eiffel Tower has tremendous symbolic value, but a melt value of about 1 cent. The rest of the medal is made from .9999 silver ($27.96 per ounce) with a value of $499.05. That puts the gold medal grand total at $1,003.56.

(If the gold medal was, in fact, fabricated from pure gold, its value would be $44,615. There was a time when Olympic gold medals were made of gold. The last ones were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, way back in 1912.)

The Olympic silver medal is made from 507 grams of .9999 silver ($500.04) and 18 grams of Eiffel Tower iron ($.01). Silver medal total: $500.05.

Crafted from 437 grams of copper at $4.09 per ounce and a penny's worth of Eiffel Tower iron, the bronze medal has a melt value of about $63.04.

The Paris Olympics medals measure 85 mm in diameter and have a thickness of 9.2 mm. They are all engraved on the edge with the name of the sport, discipline and event of the medallist.

Exactly 5,084 medals will be awarded at this year's Summer Games, but you can be sure that none of the athletes would consider selling an Olympic medal for its melt value. When these awards come up on auction, the results are usually startling.

For instance, back in 2013, billionaire Ron Burkle plunked down $1.46 million at SCP Auctions for a Jesse Owens gold medal from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 2019, Goldin Auctions offered for sale an Owens gold medal from the same Olympics. That medal was sold to an online bidder for $615,000.

Credits: Images courtesy of Paris 2024 / Ulysse Périer.

The Olympic Games' official X (formerly Twitter) page pronounced Argentina's star athletes Pablo Simonet and Pilar Campoy as the first couple to get engaged at the Olympic Village during the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

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Simonet (handball) and Campoy (field hockey) draped their arms over each other's shoulders as they posed for a team photo, but suddenly Simonet broke away from the pack and stood in front of the group with a ring box in hand. Campoy froze in place with her hands over her face as her team mates screamed their approval.

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Then Campoy joined her boyfriend and gave him the biggest hug. Simonet was still clutching the ring box and had yet to formally propose when the Argentinian squad broke out in a spontaneous celebration, jumping and dancing in a circle around the happy couple.

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When festive outburst finally settled down, Simonet, 32, got down and one knee and presented Campoy, 34, with a simple gold band.

Campoy said, "Yes," and the couple embraced.

A short video published to Simonet's Instagram account last Wednesday captured the unforgettable moments in the City of Love.

In the caption, which is translated from Spanish, Simonet wrote, "The woman of my life gave me the yes… in the dream place, where everything came from and where we fought so much to be."

"Happiness is total," he continued. "Thank you friends, and few accomplices for making this special and being able to keep this forever. Paris is always a good idea."

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Campoy showed off her new ring in a number of poses that were incorporated into the video.

Simonet and Campoy are two of the older members of the Argentinian delegation. They have been together since 2015 and represented Argentina at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

After two matches in the current competition, their respective teams are on different trajectories.

Campoy's field hockey squad currently stands at the top of Pool B with victories over the USA and South Africa. Next up is a match against Spain on Wednesday. The team took home a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Simonet's handball team, on the other hand, sits at the bottom of Pool B after suffering losses to Norway and Hungary.

Campoy sat out the 2020 Olympics, but decided to return to the team in 2024.

"Obviously, the doors were open, but I was living my life [in Spain]," Campoy told olympics.com. "But after the call, I didn't hesitate. I talked it over with Pablo and I told him, 'I want to end my career in the best way possible'."

Credit: Screen captures via Instagram / pablitosimon.

Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi couldn't have felt more proud as he raised his country's flag during the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on Friday. Floating down the River Seine with 393 athletes from the Italian team, the flag bearer was overwhelmed by the majesty of the moment as hundreds of thousands of local spectators waved at the floating parade of 85 boats carrying 205 delegations.

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But as Tamberi strained to "carry the Italian Tricolore as high as possible" he saw his wedding ring fly off his finger, bounce off the deck and disappear into the river.

On Saturday, Tamberi apologized to his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi, in a post shared on his Instagram page. The original text is in Italian and we're sure some of his romantic phrasing is missing in translation.

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"I'm sorry, my love. I'm so sorry," he wrote before attaching blame to the raining conditions, recent weight loss and the heat of the moment.

"Too much water, too many kilos lost in the past few months or maybe the uncontrollable enthusiasm of what we were doing. Probably all three things," he wrote. "The fact remains that I felt [my ring] slip away, I saw it fly… I followed her with a glance until I saw her bounce inside the boat.”

He continued, “A Glimmer of Hope… But unfortunately the bounce was in the wrong direction and floating more than a thousand times in the air I saw her dive into the water like that was the only place she wanted to be.”

The athlete described those emotionally painful moments as lasting "an eternity."

But then he flipped the script.

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"But if it was meant to happen… I couldn't imagine a better place," he reasoned. "It will stay forever in the riverbed of the City of Love, flown away while I tried to carry the Italian Tricolore as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sporting event in the world. If I had to invent an apology I would never have been this imaginative."

Tamberi concluded, "I think there might be a huge poetic side to yesterday's misdeed, and if you want, we'll throw yours into that river, too, so they'll be together forever, and we'll have one more excuse to, like you've always asked, renew our vows and get married anew. I love you, my love. May it be auspicious to come home with even bigger gold!!!"

The story of the 32-year-old's heartfelt apology was picked up worldwide by top news, celebrity and sports sites, including nytimes.com, people.com and espn.com. On Instagram, the post claims 190,000 Likes — and counting.

In the photo, at top, Tamberi is shown sharing Italian flag-bearing duties with three-time medalist Arriana Errigo as the rest of the Italian contingent looks on. Tamberi is also shown, above, posing for a selfie with Chiara during a visit to Paris earlier this year.

Credits: Images via Instagram / gianmarcotamberi and Instagram / bontempichiara.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, former Tremolo frontman Justin Dillon sings about a cherished piece of jewelry in the group’s 2005 release, “Promise Ring.”

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Dillon believes that beyond being a symbol of the bond between him and his girlfriend, the promise ring will protect them from “the bitter tide.”

He sings, “Long ago, I drew a line into the sand / Jumped across and held your hand / Band of gold protect us from the bitter tide / That comes to wash away our words with time / Hello you, Hello me / Hello hello, can’t you see / Love is more than what it seems / So I wear your promise ring.”

“Promise Ring” is the fifth track from the San Francisco-based band’s first full-length album, Love Is The Greatest Revenge. The album is a collection of songs written and recorded by the band during 2003 and 2004.

Trivia: An early demo version of “Promise Ring” was used in the 2003 Mandy Moore flick, How to Deal.

When the album came out in August of 2005, Tremolo announced that 50% of its profits would be dedicated to the “Love>Revenge Fund” — a fund that allowed fans to determine which organizations would benefit. At the time, the fund’s website described Tremolo’s debut album as “an auto-biographical social commentating post-deconstructionist protest record” that asks “what if love was the greatest revenge and music could change the world?”

In an interview with last.fm, Dillon described Tremolo’s music as “one hand holding onto the roots of the grass and one hand reaching to the stars in the sky.”

“I’m looking for this ‘otherliness,’ this transcendence. That’s the reason I think music is here,” he said at the time. “I want to be part of touching something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

In 2011, Dillon founded the award-winning website slaveryfootprint.org in conjunction with the US State Department. The site, which asks the question, “How Many Slaves Work For You?” allows consumers to visualize how their consumption habits are connected to modern-day slavery.

The musician-turned activist is now the CEO and founder of FRDM, a company that assists Global Fortune 500 brands with mapping, monitoring and mitigating human rights and climate risks in their supply chains. He is also the author of A Selfish Plan to Change the World: Finding Big Purpose in Big Problems (2017).

Please check out the audio track of “Promise Ring.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Promise Ring”
Written by Justin Dillon. Performed by Tremolo.

Long ago, I drew a line into the sand
Jumped across and held your hand
Band of gold
Protect us from the bitter tide
That comes to wash away our words with time

Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring

Promises made under the rite of spring
Heavy under summer’s sting
Say you know,
I’d run to where the spaceships land
A million miles between my mouth and hand

Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring

Love labors through the night
It bleeds and never fights
And like a seed it lives because it dies

So don’t forget, just like cash
I walk the line
Like a soldier guarding what is mine

Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring

I wear your promise ring

Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / Guideposts.

If your travels take you through southern New England this summer, be sure to stop into the Yale Peabody Museum, which officially reopened its Halls of Minerals, Earth, and Space to the public earlier this month. Within the museum, the celebrated David Friend Hall showcases one of the world's foremost collections of minerals. More than 170 specimens — some of them the largest and rarest of their kind — are now on view in the stunning and newly renovated galleries.

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“I envisioned a mineral gallery for Yale designed to inspire rather than lecture," noted philanthropist David Friend. "So, we chose specimens that are jaw-droppingly beautiful. The room is subtly lit so that the specimens themselves shine, and there is a minimum of descriptive labelling. I want visitors to leave this hall overwhelmed by the beauty of what they have seen and anxious to go home and learn more, or even start collecting minerals themselves.”

David Friend Hall draws on some of the most significant private mineral collections in the United States. A 436-pound stibnite specimen donated by Robert Lavinsky, presented in a "frozen fireworks display," greets visitors as they enter the Hall. Once inside, visitors immediately view a giant 1,900-pound quartz crystal from Namibia and an enormous quartz sandstone concretion (photo, above).

The gallery integrates both free-standing, large-scale minerals with small-scale specimens in dynamic visual displays that are designed to rotate often. Customized cases and new, state-of-the art LED lighting, showcase the uniqueness of each specimen and its natural — often otherworldly — beauty.

The museum's current building, which dates back to 1925 and was named for international financier George Peabody, houses one of the nation's oldest collections of gems and minerals and the oldest meteorite collection in North America, approaching 100,000 mineral specimens and over 3,000 meteorites.

Among the many donors and lenders who contributed to the project, the Yampol Family and The Mineral Trust loaned more than 200 specimens to the museum. A highlight of their contribution is "The Rocket," the largest elbaite specimen recovered from a legendary Brazilian mine.

The Yale Peabody Museum and David Friend Hall are located on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, CT. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Credit: Photo by Andrew Melien, courtesy of the Yale Peabody Museum.

A mother-daughter duo sauntering through London's Crystal Palace Park during an outdoor taping of BBC's Antiques Roadshow were shocked to learn that a diamond ring they found stashed in "mum's" sock drawer was a 4-carat, platinum-set treasure worth £20,000 ($25,800).

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The mom and daughter hadn't intended to get the ring appraised that day, but there was no queue to meet with fine jewelry consultant Joanne Hardy so they decided to give it a go.

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The mom explained to Hardy that she and her daughter had been helping out her "mum" clear out some old items when they happened upon the ring that had been balled up in a sock and hidden in a sock drawer.

“No! I don’t believe that," Hardy exclaimed. "And it could have gone in the washing machine."

The guest added, "We could have just bundled everything up.”

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“Given it to the charity maybe," Hardy said. "Oh my goodness!”

“When I said, ‘Mum, is this your ring?’ she said, ‘Oh yes I kept it in there so I didn’t lose it.’”

The mom said she was pretty sure it was given to her mum by her late grandfather.

After inspecting the ring, Hardy reported to the guests that the ring dates back to about 1915 and was crafted in platinum.

“It is absolutely superb," she said, adding that the diamond predates the modern brilliant cut.

"It is what we call a transitional cut," she said. "It’s [has] a soft, really soft look about it. You’ve got the facets, but nothing's sharp. The modern brilliant cut, to me, is quite brash, but this has such an air of sophistication."

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Hardy said the diamond weighed nearly 4 carats and displayed fine clarity, except for a tiny natural flaw on the side. She showed the guests that one of the prongs was damaged and needed to be re-tipped.

“There’s one claw there that has come adrift,” Hardy joked.

Then the mother-daughter duo learned that if they were to sell the ring at auction, it would fetch about £20,000.

“Wow. Oh gosh. Oooh," the mom said.

“I won’t be taking it off my finger,” added the daughter.

Then the mom realized that they had work to do: “We'd better get that claw fixed quickly. Wow. Wow.”

“It is such a stunning, stunning ring," Hardy added. "It’s absolutely lovely."

Credits: Antiques Roadshow screen captures via BBC.co.uk.

In 1885, Russian Tsar Alexander III commissioned the House of Fabergé to create a fabulous Easter egg for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. The Tsar was so pleased with the result that he decided to establish a tradition that would last 33 years. Over that time, designer and master goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé would create 52 eggs. He was given complete freedom to design the Imperial Easter eggs, under one stipulation. Each one had to contain a surprise.

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In the spirit of Peter Carl, the Fabergé brand and gemstone miner Gemfields have collaborated on the latest Fabergé egg, a ruby-themed masterpiece released in July as a nod to the month for which ruby is the official birthstone. And like all the Fabergé eggs that came before, this one has a surprise hidden within — a fiery, deep red, 5-carat Gemfields Mozambican ruby.

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As the pearl-embellished ring at the base of the egg is turned counter-clockwise, the five blades of the egg slowly unfurl, resembling the wings of an angel. This design element inspired the egg's name: "Malaika," which means angel in Swahili, one of the languages spoken in Mozambique.

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Caressed within the angel wings is a removable rose gold filigree-like sphere on which the 5-carat ruby treasure is mounted. Carefully placed gaps within the design of the outer egg allows one to catch a glimpse of the surprise nestled within.

Elena Basaglia, Gemfields’ Head of Partnerships and Product – Downstream, described the shape of the ruby as a square cushion with softly bowed sides, offering an ideal window to enjoy the vibrant red body color and lively reflections within.

"The large spread of the gemstone means that no weight is hidden below the setting line, allowing maximum appreciation of its beauty," she said. "No visible inclusions are present within the gemstone, making it a deserving piece for this special egg.”

The luxurious piece features 308 rubies sourced at Gemfields' Montepuez mine, as well as 4,312 round brilliant-cut white diamonds, 252 round brilliant-cut brown diamonds, 421 round pink sapphires and 61 amethysts, all set in 18-karat rose gold. Peter Carl pioneered the use of rose gold, and the company that bears his name continues that tradition today.

The precious gemstones interplay with colorful guilloché enameling, an ancient and highly complex technique perfected by Peter Carl. Fabergé's UK-based craftspeople followed the same process of hand-painting the enameling powder onto the gold sections. It takes at least three layers and five firings in a kiln at 800 degrees centigrade to create the desired translucent effect, according to the company. A few seconds too long in the kiln and the piece would have to be re-started from scratch.

The Malaika Egg is valued at $1.2 million, with Fabergé pledging $100,000 from the sale to the Gemfields Foundation, which funds poverty-alleviating projects in communities near Gemfields’ mines in Mozambique and Zambia, and more widely in sub-Saharan Africa. Gemfields acquired the Faberge brand in 2013.

Credits: Images courtesy of Gemfields.

About 150 million miles away on the surface of Mars, NASA's one-ton Curiosity rover accidentally rolled over the top of a nondescript white rock, busting it apart to reveal the beautiful yellowish-green crystals of pure sulfur that were inside.

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While NASA scientists had long known about the presence of opal on the Red Planet, the discovery of elemental sulfur was a complete surprise.

“I think it’s the strangest find of the whole mission and the most unexpected,” Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told CNN. “I have to say, there’s a lot of luck involved here. Not every rock has something interesting inside.”

The discovery took place on June 7, the 4,208th Martian day of Curiosity's mission, which began in August of 2012. After accidentally smashing the rock, the rover used an instrument on the end of its robotic arm, called the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, to determine its composition.

Vasavada described the Martin pure sulfur crystals as having a “beautiful, translucent and crystalline texture.”

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The most beautiful specimens of sulfur crystals on Earth have a bright yellow appearance, similar to citrine. The major difference is that citrine has a rating of 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and sulfur rates a relatively soft 2.5. Sulfur is similar in hardness to a cultured pearl and can be scratched with a fingernail.

If you believe that Martians may have once inhabited the fourth planet from the Sun, it's unlikely they were making their sulfur crystals into jewelry. The material is extremely brittle and difficult to facet. What's more, when moisture (even perspiration) or heat is applied to the stone, it smells nasty — like rotten eggs.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the collection of fragments from the smashed rock measured about 5 inches (13cm) across. They hadn't expected pure sulfur to be present on the planet and now they are trying to decipher how sulfur contributed to Mars' evolution.

“No one had pure sulfur on their bingo card,” Vasavada told CNN.

On Earth, sulfur occurs naturally in the environment and is the fifth most abundant element by mass. Pure sulfur is often connected with volcanic activity.

Back in January of 2023, a research team analyzing archived data from NASA’s Curiosity rover identified a “halo” of networks along the Martian landscape that are likely rich in opal. Since the iridescent gem is formed from water and silica, the findings provided additional evidence that the Red Planet had a watery past that could have supported microbial life.

Credits: Mars sulfur crystals image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Sulfur crystal photo by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons..

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