Scientists have debated its existence. Small traces provided clues. Now researchers have confirmed the existence of a celestial diamond after finding it on the Earth’s surface.

The stone, called lonsdaleite, is harder and more durable than ordinary diamonds. According to a new study, the rare mineral came here through a meteorite. In addition, the natural chemical process by which scientists believe lonsdaleite is formed could inspire ways to create ultra-strong industrial ingredients, according to the authors of the study published May 12. 9 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The revelations began to unfold when geologist Andy Tomkins, a professor at Monash University in Australia, was classifying meteorites at the scene. Study co-author Alan Salek, a PhD student and researcher at RMIT University in Australia, said he came across a strange “folded” diamond in a space rock in northwest Africa.

Tomkins speculates that the meteorite containing lonsdaleite came from the mantle of a dwarf planet that has been around for about 4.5 billion years, Salek said.

“It really took advantage of some of the recent developments in microscopy to do what they did as well as they did,” Asimow said.

He added: “The dwarf planet was subsequently hit by a catastrophic asteroid, which released the pressure and led to the formation of these really strange diamonds. With advanced methods and possibilities for the future, this discovery is exciting, said Paul Asimow, professor of geology and geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Asimow was not involved in the study.

According to the study, the team was able to analyze the meteorite using electron microscopy and advanced synctron techniques, which map the composition of space objects, including lonsdaleite, diamond and graphite.

Diamonds and lonsdaleite can form in three ways. This may be due to long periods of high pressure and temperature, which is how diamonds form on the Earth’s surface; the shock of a super-fast meteor impact; or the release of broken graphite fumes will adhere to a small diamond fragment and settle on it, Asimow said.

The method of making the mineral can affect its size, he added. The researchers suggested in this study that the third method constitutes the largest sample they found. “So nature provided us with a process to try and replicate in the industry,” Tomkins said in a press release. “We believe lonsdaleite could be used to make ultra-small, ultra-rigid machine parts if we can develop an industrial process that promotes the replacement of preformed graphite parts with lonsdaleite.”

Long before the discovery, scientists argued for the existence of lonsdaleite, Asimow said. “It seems a strange claim that we have a name for something and we all agree what it is,” he added, “but there are claims in the community that it is not.” real mineral, it’s not real. crystal, that you can have a macro scale.” Salek said scientists first identified the mineral fragments in 1967, but they are very small – about 1 to 2 nanometers, 1,000 times smaller than what was found in the most recent discovery.

The discovery of a larger sample shows that lonsdaleite is more than just an anomaly compared to other diamonds, Asimow said. Common diamonds, such as those you see in fine jewelry, are made of carbon and have a cubic atomic structure, Salek said. As the hardest material known to date, they are also used in manufacturing.

Lonsdaleite is also made of carbon, but instead has an unusual hexagonal structure, he added. The researchers had previously produced models of lonsdaleite’s structure, and they speculated that the hexagonal structure could make it 58% harder than regular diamond, Salek said. This hardness could make rare space diamonds a valuable resource for industrial applications if scientists figure out how to use new production methods to make minerals large enough. Now that scientists know about this mineral, the discovery raises the question of whether they can recreate it.

Tools like saw blades, drills and mines need to be hard and wear-resistant over the long term, so a ready supply of lonsdaleite can make them even better, says Salek. And now, with a credible scientific theory of how these larger deposits form, a rudimentary plan exists to create lonsdaleite in the lab. From this discovery, we can also learn more about the interactions of the universe, said Phil Sutton, senior lecturer in astrophysics at Lincoln University in the UK. Sutton was not involved in the study. When exploring the history of where we came from and how we evolved, he added, it’s important to know that materials are exchanged between environments, even across solar systems.

Scientists named lonsdaleite after crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, who in 1945 became one of the first women to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

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