Scientists have discovered diamonds from a dead protoplanet in a meteorite. Free Technical Library News

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Scientists have discovered diamonds from a dead protoplanet in a meteorite

27.04.2018

A small asteroid 2008 TC3 fell into the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan on October 7, 2008. It was named Almahata Sitta, which means "Sixth Station" in Arabic (this is the name of the railway station, which is located near the place where the meteorite fell). This is the first case in history when a collision of a celestial body with the Earth was predicted: an asteroid was discovered at the Mount Lemmon Observatory (USA, Arizona) the day before the fall. The mass of all its fragments scattered across the desert reaches about three kilograms.

This asteroid is also unique in that it belongs to a rare type of stone meteorites - ureilite, which has a unique mineralogical composition. Ureylite contains a high percentage of carbon, which is contained in the stone in the form of graphite and nanodiamonds - a structure that has a crystal lattice structure similar to diamonds. For a long time it was not known exactly what is the origin of the diamonds found in the asteroid - and, accordingly, the origin of the celestial body itself. The discovery of scientists from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne (Switzerland) sheds light on this event.

In total, three theories of the formation of diamond crystals are known. The first is "shock": inclusions of these precious crystals can form during the collision of celestial bodies. Another says that they are formed due to the chemical deposition of carbon vapor. The third claims that diamonds appeared in the bowels of protoplanets.

Analysis of meteorite fragments found in Sudan shows that the size of some diamond inclusions reaches up to 100 microns. Scientists say that the pressure required to form such large crystals cannot be lower than 20 gigapascals (about 200 thousand atmospheres). Such conditions could only be created on a large planet comparable to Mars or Mercury. Thus, scientists confirmed the third theory and proved that the asteroid is a fragment of an ancient protoplanet.

This find allows us to get closer to understanding how our solar system formed. The researchers suggest that all ureilitic asteroids may be the remnants of the same protoplanet that existed long before the formation of the planets known to us.

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