Jewels from the beginning of time: First comet nugget found on Earth
Posted by staff / October 14, 2013
It might only be the size of a pebble, but in terms of scientific worth, it’s priceless.
After eliminating every other possibility, the scientists analyzing a rock dubbed “Hypatia,” after the Alexandrian female mathematician and philosopher came to the conclusion that the pebble found in the Egyptian desert was, in fact, part of a comet’s nucleus.
It is believed the impact of this same comet in the atmosphere twenty-eight million years ago turned an area of more than 2500-square-miles of the Sahara to glass, one piece of which ended up in the brooch of a pharaoh, but he missed out on the real jewel; this pebble is encrusted with diamonds of a stellar origin.
“Diamonds are produced from carbon-bearing material,” Kramers said. “Normally they form deep in the Earth, where the pressure is high, but you can also generate very high pressure with shock. Part of the comet impacted, and the shock of the impact produced the diamonds.”
Part of the thrill is that scientists don’t have to spend a fortune collecting comet dust from the upper atmosphere or Antarctica when they’ve got such a valuable artifact in hand.
Full story at LiveScience.
Photo credit: Fotolia
Comments are off for this post.