Diamonds Found In Lost Planet's Fragments

I think we all love an exquisite diamond, whether it's for our soon to be wife's ring or for those of us who appreciate a nice piece of jewelry. These diamonds on the other hand, came from a lost planet.

Scientists discovered a meteorite that landed on Earth in the deserts of Sudan, in 2008. Further tests and research on the meteorite has lead scientists to the discovery of diamonds in the fragments of this shattered meteor. The tests reveal that the fragments are in fact a piece of a lost planet that orbited the sun billions of years before even our own solar system was formed.

This diamond is not like your every day average diamond. While conducting their tests, scientists noticed that this diamond was not crystal clear at all, it had many imperfections. The defects were made of chromite, phosphate, and iron-nickel sulfides, which made this gem not what a typical diamond would look like.

After nearly a decade of research and studies, scientists concluded that this came from a rocky planet like ours, that existed between 4.54 and 4.57 billion years ago. For millions of years after this protoplanet was destroyed, it's fragments and meteorites traveled the astroid belt until they finally collided with Earth. They believe that the planet had to be somewhere between the size of Mercury and Mars because of the pressure it would have needed to make a diamond such as this one.

When we sit back and think about the solar system and all the planets that inhabit it, we are only but small fragment of what is really out there. To think that something made over 4 billion years ago made its way to Earth and not in a pile of dust, is a miracle in itself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/science/diamonds-meteorite-lost-planet.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fspace&action=click&contentCollection=space&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront