A strange type of diamond in our solar system originating from outer !space
Scientists suggest the formation of a strange type of diamond as a result of the collision of a dwarf planet in the solar system with an asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago.
The research team confirmed the existence of a rare type of hexagonal diamond, called Lonsdalite, that was extracted from comets of Orelite from within the mantle of the dwarf planet. This diamond is named after pioneering crystallologist Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, the first woman elected to a fellow of the Royal Society.
The results of the joint efforts of scientists from Monash University, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the Australian Synchrotron University and the University of Plymouth, confirmed the existence of evidence to help understanding how Lonsdalites form within comets of Orelite, and published the results of the research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was led by Monash University geologist Andy Tomkins.
Study co-author Dubal McCulloch, an instructor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, reports that Lonsdalite diamonds are harder than regular diamonds, due to their hexagonal structure, compared to normal cubic diamonds.
“This study proves that this type of diamond exists in nature,” McCulloch says. We were able to detect its largest crystal size to date, a micron, which is thinner than a human hair.”
The team says that Lonsdalite's distinctive structure may help create new manufacturing methods for the ultra-hard materials used in mining.
?What is the origin of this mysterious diamond
McCulloch and the RMIT team used advanced electron microscopy methods to isolate coherent, intact samples of comets, to create a visualization of how londondaleite and common diamonds form.
"There is strong evidence that a new process that explains the formation of natural diamonds and londesalites, similar to supercritical vapor deposition, has occurred within space rocks," McCulloch says. It may have occurred on the dwarf planet after a devastating collision with an asteroid. Vapor deposition is one of the methods used to make diamonds in laboratories, in rooms dedicated to this process.”
The team suggests that the Lonsdalite diamonds found in meteorites were formed from a supercritical fluid at elevated temperatures and medium pressures, ensuring that the shape and properties of the graphite already present were preserved.
"Later, as ambient temperatures and pressures decreased, most of the londesdalites found in nature were replaced by ordinary diamonds," says Tomkins. We think londesalite can be used to make very tough micro-parts in machines, but the success of this idea depends on developing a manufacturing process that replaces regular graphite with londesalite.”
Tomkins concluded by saying that the study's results helped solve a previous puzzle about how the carbon phases of orelite are formed.
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