In 1996 , Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat discover a diminutive , one - ounce Harlan Fiske Stone in the eastern Sahara . Ever since , scientist have been trying to figure out where exactly the secret pebble start . AsPopular Mechanicsreports , it probably was n’t anywhere near Earth . A new study inGeochimica et Cosmochimica Actafinds that the micro - compounds in the rock’n’roll do n’t match anything we ’ve ever found in our solar system .
scientist have cognise for several years that the sherd , experience as the Hypatia stone , was extraterrestrial in extraction . But this unexampled written report finds that it ’s even weird than we think . Led by University of Johannesburg geologists , the research team do mineral analyses on the microdiamond - studded rock that showed that it is made of affair that forego the existence of our Sun or any of the planets in the solar system of rules . And , its chemical composition does n’t resemble anything we ’ve found on Earth or in comets or meteorites we have canvass .
jumper lead researcher Jan Kramers toldPopular Mechanicsthat the stone was belike created in the early solar nebula , a jumbo cloud of homogenous interstellar debris from which the Sun and its planet constitute . While some of the basic materials in the pebble are found on Earth — carbon , aluminum , iron , silicon — they survive in wildly different ratios than cloth we ’ve seen before . Researchers consider the rock ’s microscopic diamonds were created by the shock of the impact with Earth ’s ambiance or impertinence .
" When Hypatia was first find to be extraterrestrial , it was a hotshot , but these latest results are open up even bigger questions about its origins , " as subject area Centennial State - author Marco Andreoli state in apress tone ending .
The study suggests the early solar nebula may not have been as homogeneous as we thought . " If Hypatia itself is not presolar , [ some of its chemical substance ] features designate that the solar nebula was n’t the same kind of dust everywhere — which starts tugging at the generally take thought of the shaping of our solar organization , " Kramer said .
The researchers plan to further examine the tilt ’s origin , hopefully solving some of the puzzler this study has presented .
[ h / tPopular Mechanics ]
