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Asteroid Impacts Make Tiny Diamonds

Posted by timothy on from the when-you-love-her-just-a-bit dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes: It's long been thought that asteroid impacts create pressures high enough to form diamonds. Now, using high-energy lasers and X-ray crystallography, researchers have confirmed that lonsdaleite, a form of diamond, can be made this way.

23 comments

  1. "Meteor Hunters" now on the History Channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch this inspire the next round of get-rich quick schemes...

    1. Re:"Meteor Hunters" now on the History Channel by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure whether to laugh or feel depressed that you're probably right.

      --
      WTF happened to the History Channel ? You keep using this word "history"; I don't think it means what you think it means. Aliens won't make history until ~2024 ...

    2. Re:"Meteor Hunters" now on the History Channel by Raenex · · Score: 1

      WTF happened to the History Channel ?

      Market forces.

  2. Trump style by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Just redirect some asteroids here to get rich quick.

    So what if we lose a couple of dinosaurs. They just stink and stomp things anyhow.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Trump style by ls671 · · Score: 1

      What do you think led to dinosaur extinction? Some alien species had financial problem and were about to go bankrupted. Then, they directed a few asteroids at planet Earth and afterward collected the diamonds; profit and they are since an inter-galactical economic superpower.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    2. Re:Trump style by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

      and were about to go bankrupted

      I think you are a clever alien disguised in human form . One who had to learn english to converse with the earthlings. Hmm ..

  3. By the red of your sun. by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    That's one explanation.

    Do you now understand now what CG has spared you?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  4. not much special about diamonds by daniel23 · · Score: 2

    diamonds are not that seldom and there are a number of well known process to artificially create them. The tingle of luxury or uniqueness about them is due to a well guarded monopoly on the supply and distribution side and fine marketing. Linking the mineral to engagement in a mainstream sexually repressive culture like they have in large parts of NA was a mature feat for deBeers and basically it is frustrated testosterone which gives the tingle and wow to all those diamond stories like this one.

    --
    605413? Yes, it's a prime.
    1. Re:not much special about diamonds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, deBeers are to blame (or congratulate) for their achievement here... best article I can quickly find on this is here:

      http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/

    2. Re: not much special about diamonds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They also keep a few warehouses full of diamonds to never sell. Artificial scarcity 101.

    3. Re: not much special about diamonds by breakermelvin · · Score: 1

      Howard Hughes Snr invented the rotating drill head ..in 2000 was still 60% of the market. Synthetic diamonds are so cheap now, I hear they don't bother with rotating heads now, just a bunch of diamonds. Is this true?

    4. Re: not much special about diamonds by invictusvoyd · · Score: 2

      De Beers is offering specialised machines to the diamond industry to weed out man-made diamonds, which are far cheaper to produce than the natural ones. http://www.bdlive.co.za/busine...


      Advantages of synthetic :

      Lower prices
      Alleviating concerns about the environmental impact of mining
      Alleviating concerns related to the potential purchase of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Conclusion : De Beers is evil . There is no "real" difference between the synth and the natural ones

    5. Re: not much special about diamonds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alleviating concerns related to the potential purchase of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds

      Blood diamonds is just another De Beers scam. They can't control diamonds coming out of war zones, so they use marketing to convince people not to buy them. If they could control those diamonds, you know they'd be find with them.

    6. Re:not much special about diamonds by whit3 · · Score: 1

      diamonds are not that seldom and there are a number of well known process to artificially create them.

      The researchers who first made artificial diamonds, were informed by the discovery in meteor sites, of diamond in iron matrix. That was their clue that good crystallization could be achieved using iron as a 'solvent'. The Lonsdaleite saga, though, is a carbon story without the iron, and is really new science.

      Also, it involves lasers, X-rays, asteroids... I see the possibility of a really fine video game in this!

      _The Diamond Makers_, by Robert Hazen, is a good treatment of the early years of diamond creation.

  5. honey, would you marry me? by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    here's your 5-carat lonsdaleite ring to show the girls.

  6. Which is correct? Mindat or TFA? by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Mindat notes the hardness of Lonsdaleite at 7-8. Diamond is 10. TFA says that Lonsdaleite in a pure form might be harder than diamond.

    So which is it?

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    1. Re:Which is correct? Mindat or TFA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It isn't diamond, but a different allotrope of carbon that is sometimes called hexagonal diamond. Theoretically it is harder than normal diamonds, but all known natural and artificial sources so far have been over a range of hardness softer than normal diamond. The going theory is that there are too many lattice defects in real examples, so if a better creation process can be found, it could potentially have a different hardness. It doesn't help that samples are microscopic. And hardness can be subtler than the simple, nonlinear/relative Mohs scale, as hardness can depend on what angle you consider relative to the crystal structure.

    2. Re:Which is correct? Mindat or TFA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      I guess that you don't hang out at the National Labs much, since for well over a decade, really really pure Diamonds have been made, and studied.
      Lattice Defects are no longer interesting, since their effects are macroscopic, crude, and irreproducible.
      Isotopically Pure Diamonds are the Thing these days. At Isotopic purity ratios better than a billion to one, 12C and 13C Diamonds are starkly different in their properties.
      It's a Quantum Physics thing, since 12C and 13C obey entirely different, and as yet irreconcilable, Laws of Physics.

      However, I did enjoy the "Gee Whiz!" attitude of the Article; it's quite a refreshing change from the Paywalled and Malware-ridden Forbes articles of the recent past.

      Good job, Timothy.

    3. Re: Which is correct? Mindat or TFA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somehow you got modded up for an irrelevant post and not reading the very first line of the post you replied to. This story is not about normal diamonds, but about lonsdaleite. They are different allotropes of carbon, and the summary/title does a disservice by calling them diamonds. Your comment that national labs make really pure diamonds is as relevant to this story as is a comment that arftifical diamonds are easy to make in response to stories about the difficulty of producing graphene on the industrial scale.

  7. How is this news? by NotInHere · · Score: 1

    This has been known already for some time: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/ar...

    1. Re: How is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong mineral, as the article you link doesn't talk of lonsdaleite.

  8. Impacts Make Tiny Diamonds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Strangely understated essay

    Popagai Impact crater diamonds -- The world's largest known diamond deposit was formed by a massive asteroid impact

    http://geology.com/articles/popigai-crater-diamonds/

  9. Nothing New? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought we figured this out in the early / mid 70's? And it's kinda common sense as well.