(Black) Diamonds Are Forever
By Helen Potter
We're all familiar with diamonds as small, sparkly, expensive stones but the rare black diamonds have just got more interesting - it turns out that they're from outer space.
Scientists from Florida International University and Case Western Reserve University have used synchrotron radiation to pinpoint the origin of these diamonds.
The presence of hydrogen within the diamonds suggests that they were formed in hydrogen-rich interstellar space. This supports earlier work by one of the researchers, Stephen Haggerty, which suggested the diamonds were formed in stellar supernovae explosions and arrived on Earth as rocks the size of asteroids (a kilometre or more across).
Black diamonds, also known as carbonado diamonds, are found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic and were so named because they look like charcoal. Even though, geologically, these locations are to where conventional diamonds are found; conventional areas are just not compatible with forming black diamonds. From the 600 tons of diamonds mined since 1900, not one black diamond has been discovered in the world's mining fields.
Find out more about Helen and read her other articles here.
Scientists from Florida International University and Case Western Reserve University have used synchrotron radiation to pinpoint the origin of these diamonds.
The presence of hydrogen within the diamonds suggests that they were formed in hydrogen-rich interstellar space. This supports earlier work by one of the researchers, Stephen Haggerty, which suggested the diamonds were formed in stellar supernovae explosions and arrived on Earth as rocks the size of asteroids (a kilometre or more across).
Black diamonds, also known as carbonado diamonds, are found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic and were so named because they look like charcoal. Even though, geologically, these locations are to where conventional diamonds are found; conventional areas are just not compatible with forming black diamonds. From the 600 tons of diamonds mined since 1900, not one black diamond has been discovered in the world's mining fields.
Find out more about Helen and read her other articles here.
Buy out-of-this-world black diamonds from Neimans who kindly supplied the image.
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