Diamonds are in meteorites and in your mother's wedding ring. Some are more exotic than what you would find in a local mall.
A team of researchers say they have found the largest crystals of a mysterious form of diamond. Lonsdaleite is believed to be 58 percent harder than Earth diamonds due to its hexagonal structure. Due to the fact that it doesn't form naturally on Earth, it's difficult to discover the material's origins.
The scientists didn't seem to be deterred by that.
According to the press release, the study proves that lonsdaleite exists.
The instances of lonsdaleite may have been formed in the wake of a giant asteroid smashing a dwarf planet about 4.5 billion years ago, according to the findings.
"There's strong evidence that there's a newly discovered formation process for the lonsdaleite and regular diamond, which is like a supercritical chemical Vapor deposition process that has taken place in the dwarf planet shortly after a catastrophic collision," said McCulloch.
The key difference in that word salad is that the diamonds formed after the collision, not during it as once believed, meaning those kind of extraordinary, planet-crushing forces may not be necessary to create lonsdaleite.
According to the lead author of the study, Andy Tomkins, the findings could help replicate the process on an industrial scale, where the diamonds could be used to create ultra-hard machine parts. The scale that Tomkins envisions isn't the one that Lonsdaleite has been created at.
Is it possible to find diamonds from an ill-advised planet? That is pretty bad.
There's more on diamond. The scientists turned ranch dressing into a diamond.
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