[Rockhounds] Study: Diamond from the sky may have come from 'lost planet'

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Fragments of a meteorite that fell to Earth more than a decade ago provide
compelling evidence of a lost planet that once roamed our solar system,
according to a study published Tuesday.

Researchers from Switzerland, France and Germany examined diamonds found
inside the Almahata Sitta meteorite <https://phys.org/tags/meteorite/> and
concluded they were most likely formed by a proto-planet at least 4.55
billion years ago.

The diamonds in the meteorite, which crashed in Sudan's Nubian Desert in
October 2008, have tiny crystals inside them that would have required great
pressure to form, said one of the study's co-authors, Philippe Gillet.

"We demonstrate that these large diamonds cannot be the result of a shock
but rather of growth that has taken place within a planet," he told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview from Switzerland.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-04-diamond-sky-lost-planet.html#jCp