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
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