SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A diamond from DeBeers' Snap Lake mine travelled 10,537,748 km into space and back to Yellowknife. Arriving with the diamond was Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, who left hundreds of students with a message worth more than any amount of diamonds as she visited schools in Yellowknife last week.

Canadian astronaut Julie Payette accepted the gift of a birch bark berry basket from Weledeh Catholic School principal Merril Dean May 5, after Payette gave an inspiring presentation to over 500 students in the school's gym. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"I am absolutely convinced that we all have talent and we can all do something interesting and important," said Payette after a presentation at Weledeh Catholic School.

"I like to tell them that it doesn't matter if you're different for whatever reason, or if you come from not as privileged a background."

"I didn't come from a privileged background, but the one thing I did control was my education. I had the control to stay in school and so do they. I like to tell them to seize that opportunity."

The diamond that Payette brought to space, and which later brought her to Yellowknife, was given to the Canadian Space Agency by Astronomy North to be taken into space as part of Payette's personal kit. Payette brought it back and donated it to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, and it will be unveiled in an exhibit as part of Astronomy North's Legendary Sky project at the museum on June 25.

"The diamond was perfect because it represents nature, it represents the resources of the NWT ... but it also represents the sky, the sparkling star, of the symbiosis particularly people of the North have had with nature and with the sky forever," said Payette.

Astronomy North president James Pugsley said besides the "wow factor of being an astronaut," Payette's presentation to students was mainly geared to inspire kids to live up to their potential.

"It's part of the ongoing effort to help strengthen the connection between the Canadian Space Agency and the classrooms of the NWT," said Pugsley.

"Astronomy North helped with facilitating the relationship with the Canadian Space Agency and the GNWT around this opportunity."

Pugsley said Payette spoke to over 850 students, parents, and teachers in a span of 24 hours.

Along with the inspiring message, Payette left the students with a lot of information about life as an astronaut that is sure to inspire at least a few of them to look a little closer at the sky each night.

At Weledeh on May 5, Payette showed a video of her last voyage into space during her presentation, which launched on July 15, 2009 and landed on July 31. Payette went up with a crew of astronauts to help build the International Space Station.

She said the ride out of Earth's atmosphere is "not necessarily violent but quite dynamic."

"Once you get (to space) things get very different because you're in weightlessness," said Payette.

"You need to calm down. You can't push off a wall too fast or too strong because then you go floating in the other direction too fast and you bang into colleagues or you hang onto delicate equipment.

"You learn to be more deliberate with your actions. When you push off the wall to float about you eventually learn to be a bit more graceful."

Payette said the experience of floating around tones down the mood in space, even though the astronauts are busy working pretty much every waking minute while in space - the little moments of rest, however, can be profound.

"It's great to be able to float to a window and contemplate the planet. It's an extraordinary privilege," said Payette.