Star Sapphire

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, copper or magnesium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange or greenish colour.

Significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, East Africa, and in North America in a few locations A star sapphire is a type of sapphire that exhibits a star-like phenomenon known as asterism; red stones are known as "star rubies".

Star sapphires contain intersecting needle-like inclusions following the underlying crystal structure that cause the appearance of a six-rayed "star"-shaped pattern when viewed with a single overhead light source. The inclusion is often the mineral rutile, a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide.

The value of a star sapphire depends not only on the weight of the stone but also the body color, visibility and intensity of the asterism.

Sapphire has a hardness of 9 on Moh's Scale.

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