Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

14 of 23 comments (clear)

  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. 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 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?

    2. 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

    3. 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.
  7. How is this news? by NotInHere · · Score: 1

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

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

    WTF happened to the History Channel ?

    Market forces.