Scientists have discovered an unknown form of carbon on Earth in fragments of a meteorite that fell in the Chelyabinsk region in 2013, said Sergei Zamozdra, assistant professor of theoretical physics at the Chelyabinsk State University.
He said that the dean of the Faculty of Physics Sergey Taskaev (now the rector of the university. – Ed.), while studying samples of meteorite dust, noticed something amazing.
“At first he thought it was a diamond, because there were six faces. Later in Germany, this crystal was pulled out using micro-tweezers and when X-rayed – it turned out to be not a diamond, but a carbon crystal. We measured the position of atoms, the planes of interatomic, then Korean specialists on a computer calculated that, indeed, such an arrangement of atoms is possible, “he explained.
According to the scientist, carbon can have many modifications. However, such carbon has not yet been found on Earth, and experts will have to figure out how it came about, calculating different options.
“One option is that it arose in space conditions, because we are talking about a process of billions of years. Another is directly during a flight in the Earth’s atmosphere,” the scientist believes.
According to the press service of Chelyabinsk State University, the study of meteorite fragments was carried out by Sergey Taskaev together with colleagues from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) and the National University of Kengpuk (Republic of Korea).
In the Chelyabinsk region on February 15, 2013, thousands of people watched a very bright object in the sky. In the first minutes, the expansion and twisting of its smoky plume was visible, followed by an air wave strike, similar to the sound of a strong explosion.
Fragments of the meteorite were found in the vicinity of Chebarkul, but the largest – more than 600 kilograms – was raised from the lake of the same name. Now it is stored in Chelyabinsk in the South Ural State Historical Museum under a special dome in the exhibition hall, where everyone can see it.
