A meteorite contains something that we do not know here on Earth at all / Wikimedia Commons / Geoffrey Notkin, Aerolite Meteorites of Tucson
Called Canyon Diablo, this meteorite hit Earth in Arizona 50,000 years ago. And when scientists finally examined it now, they found something they had never seen before. The strange structure of the diamonds that the meteorite contained.
The Canyon Diablo meteorite is actually many fragments of an asteroid that formed Meteor Crater in Arizona. The meteorites were found around the rim of the crater and were therefore named after the nearby Diablo Canyon, which lies about five kilometers from the crater.
Thanks to what scientists have now discovered in the meteorite, it is clear why extraterrestrials could have technologies that we cannot even imagine here on Earth. And those who believe in the presence of extraterrestrials on our planet and investigate various unexplained findings now have the upper hand.
So what exactly did scientists discover in the Canyon Diablo meteorite? A strangely intertwined structure of graphite and diamond. And the properties of this structure, which we do not know here on Earth, can be used to develop new electronic technologies, including super-fast battery charging.
Does that mean something is different up there? Simply put, yes. Earth diamonds are not the same as space diamonds. Ours are formed deep underground at extremely high temperatures, and their carbons are cubic in shape. The cosmic ones, more specifically the meteoritic ones, are formed only under enormous pressure and temperature, and the carbons have a hexagonal structure. In other words, such a diamond is created only when a meteorite, i.e. an asteroid, hits the Earth at a tremendous speed.
And what kind of structure will arise with such a constellation? It’s a entanglement of diamonds with graphene, which is a super-thin form of carbon similar to graphite. For the use of such a material, quite commonly available sources of carbonaceous materials could be used here on Earth, moreover, this discovery brought scientists an important insight. They already know what pressure and temperature they need to produce something like this.
They could probably even make it in a lab now that they know how. Graphene is a very interesting material in itself. It is very light, but at the same time very strong, about like a diamond. In addition, it is very thin. It has high conductivity. Such material could then be used in new technologies that we cannot yet produce.
For example, very hard and at the same time ductile materials for spaceships, for example. Or perhaps electronics that could be recharged within a second. And there is much more that scientists could invent using this material in the future.
“Through controlled layer-by-layer growth, it should be possible to design materials that are both ultrahard and ductile, and also have tunable electronic properties from conductor to insulator,” writes Christoph Salzmann, a chemist at University College London who co-authored the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Author’s article, another source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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