Interstellar diamonds in meteorites
Abstract
Primitive meteorites contain up to 400 p.p.m. of a very fine-grained type of carbon, noncommittally called Cδ1. It apparently conies from outside the Solar System, as it carries isotopically anomalous krypton and xenon ('Xe-HL' or 'CCFXe', enriched twofold in the lightest and heaviest isotopes2) and nitrogen (δ15N =-330‰3 that is, depleted in 15N by -330‰ relative to atmospheric nitrogen), although the carbon itself is within the terrestrial range (δ13C =-38‰1). Expanding on a preliminary report4, we now present evidence that part or all of Cδ is diamond-not shock-produced but primary, formed by stellar condensation as a metastable phase. It appears that interstellar dust contains diamond.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- March 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1038/326160a0
- Bibcode:
- 1987Natur.326..160L
- Keywords:
-
- Carbonaceous Chondrites;
- Cosmic Dust;
- Cosmochemistry;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Meteoritic Diamonds;
- Chemical Composition;
- Electron Diffraction;
- Electron Microscopy;
- Mechanical Shock;
- Lunar and Planetary Exploration; Meteorites;
- METEORITES;
- DIAMONDS;
- ABUNDANCE;
- CARBON;
- SOURCE;
- ORIGIN;
- ISOTOPES;
- SEM;
- ANOMALIES;
- KRYPTON;
- XENON;
- NITROGEN;
- ENRICHMENT;
- DEPLETION;
- CHONDRITES;
- FORMATION;
- CONDENSATION;
- SAMPLES;
- METEORITE;
- TEM;
- ELECTRON MICROSCOPY;
- CV3 CHONDRITES;
- ALLENDE;
- CM2 CHONDRITES;
- MURCHISON;
- MURRAY;
- INDARCH;
- E4 CHONDRITES;
- PROCEDURE;
- ANALYSIS;
- LABORATORY STUDIES