Researchers have discovered microdiamonds in a meteorite that fell in California’s Sutter’s Mill in 2012, according to a statement released by NASA. 

The stones are transparent and obtuse, but “too small to sparkle in a ring,” said Mike Zolensky, space scientist at Johnson Space Center, in a statement. “But their size is much larger than the nanometer-sized diamonds commonly found in such meteorites.”

Their origin is something of a mystery, NASA says, because of their unusual (relative) size.

While nanodiamonds are thought to originate in the atmospheres of stars, the larger diamonds found in Sutter’s Mill may have come from a place closer to the Earth. 

Another scientist, Japanese associate professor Yoko Kebukawa, said the diamonds are xenoliths—bits and pieces that originated in the interior of much larger bodies.

Nano, nano

Rob Bates

JCK News Director