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Diamonds in Sudan Meteorite 'Are Remnants of Lost Planet' (theguardian.com)
Diamonds found in a meteorite that exploded over the Nubian desert in Sudan a decade ago were formed deep inside a "lost planet" that once circled the sun in the early solar system, scientists say. From a report: Microscopic analyses of the meteorite's tiny diamonds revealed they contain compounds that are produced under intense pressure, suggesting the diamonds formed far beneath the surface of a planet. In this case, the mysterious world was calculated to be somewhere between Mercury and Mars in size. Astronomers have long hypothesised that dozens of fledgling planets, ranging in size from the moon to Mars, formed in the first 10m years of the solar system and were broken apart and repackaged in violent collisions that ultimately created the terrestrial planets that orbit the sun today.
Couldn't the meteorite just be part of the Earth that was knocked loose when a huge rock smashed into and created the moon?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
According to TFA, these diamonds contain an iron-sulphur compound that forms at 20 gigapascals. Regular diamonds can form at 3.5-4.5 gigapascals.
I hope they can find this lost planet and return it to its rightful owners.
Anyone who has lost a planet within the past 4 billion years should please contact lost and found, and provide a description of the missing planet.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Especially when they're alien diamonds coming down in a rain of fire from the sky
If you read the article, it mentions that the diamonds are up to 100 micrometers across. Human hair diameter ranges from 17 to 181 micrometers, so these diamonds are roughly as big across as the thickness of a human hair. What they're describing is more appropriately used for industrial abrasive than as gems.
Hard to call it a planet, since there is a fair chance that it might still be in one piece if it had cleared its orbit...
No, not "Planet X;" rather, the missing fifth planet - where the asteroid belt now lies... possibly related to whatever event(s) caused Mars to get dusted with Xenon 129 a few hundred million years back? ;)
I wonder... if you were from Krypton, if tiny quantities of the stuff might have a homeopathic effect - like providing "staying power" in bed, for example...