Diamond is supposed to strengthen the planet Venus to increase luxury and enjoyment in your life. If you are a Virgo then according to Vedic astrology Diamond is the right gemstone for you.
The glittering colour and the four perfect cleavage directions make is a dazzling gem and its endurability, since it's the hardest thing we know of, combines with that dazzle to make the diamond among the most popular of gemstones. The cleavage directions means that the diamond can be cut into a huge variety of styles, each one of which will show the diamond in a different manner. The more perfect the cut the more dazzle, and the higher the price.
Technically speaking, diamond is just a chunk of carbon. (but what a chunk...) It is a matrix of Carbon, just like Graphite, but where it differs is in how the carbon atoms conect to each other. A diamond can almost be thought of as one single molecule, since all the carbon atoms link to each other. (each carbon atom can link to four other atoms.) This is what gives the diamond its incredible toughness. In other forms of carbon the atoms form sheets or little clumps. In a diamond they're all tied together in a 3d grid. It's this grid which allows a diamond to be cut so nicely.
A pure diamond is colorless, it's the impurities in the matrix that give it color. In fact, diamonds are available in wide variety of colors such as blue, pink, white, yellow, brown, and others. Yellow and brown are the most common colors found in nature, white is the color we're all most familiar with, and the others are quite rare. So rare, in fact, that most of the colored diamond you find in your jewelry store get their color through special treatments, such as radiation. A natural colored diamond, say pink or blue, or even green, of high quality, will fetch an insane price.
A fine, natural, colored diamond (other than the yellow to brown group) will command an amazing price, well beyond that of white diamonds. A big, perfect, fancy colored diamond will likely be priceless (eg: the richly blue colored Hope Diamond.) Generally, as diamonds get darker in color, their value declines. This doesn't mean they're cheap! A nicely cut and shaped yellow or brown diamond can still demand a solid price. In fact, the brown diamonds are having some succes being marketed as Champagne, Cognac and Coffee. The colors are caused by impurities (such as nitrogen) which occur naturally in the diamond crystals.
The hardness of any material is measured on the Mohs Hardness Scale, and the diamond, of course, has a hardness of 10 (talc is the softest, at 1; Quartz is a 7.) Diamond is the hardest substance known. (Just for the sake of interest, Diamond is four times harder than Sapphire or Ruby, both of which are nines on the Mohs scale.)
Diamond can scratch any other mineral and the phrase, “Diamond can only be cut by a diamond”, is true. Despite the extreme hardness a diamond can easily be cut along certain cleavage directions. A well trained diamond cutter will use these natural cleavage lines to fashion a beautiful stone. Cutting against the cleavage lines will just blunt the chisel. The better the cut, the prettier the gem. And the higher the price. A fine diamond, perfectly cut, is dazzling.
Diamond is a highly transparent mineral, much more so than glass or anything else. All light passes through it, from the far ultraviolet to the far infrared. Diamond is also relatively heavy for its size, with a specific Gravity of 3.5, which just means that it's 3.5 times heavier than an equal volume of water. So a diamond will sink quickly. One of the ways gemologists can separate diamonds from good fakes is by the specific gravity. It's actually heavier than glass, cubic zirconia, quartz, or other crystals.
Diamond conducts heat five times better than Silver, which gives it certain undustrial uses. The Melting point of Diamond is 3820 Kelvin (over 7,100 degrees farenheit) and the Lattice density is also the highest, which means its atoms are more tightly packed than any other material. All of these properties make diamonds very useful in industry beyond just as an abrasive. Naturally diamond's extreme hardness makes diamond dust useful for all sorts of abrasives and cutting tools. The heat and electrical properties also make diamonds useful in certain electronics applications.
Diamonds are found all over the world, most notably in South Africa where you'll find the most famous diamond mines, but also other places in Africa, as well as Australia, Arkansas, Africa, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Russia etc.
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