Discover diamonds from ancient planets in meteors

Diamond in Almahata meteorite fragment Sitta plunges to Earth formed under great pressure.

Scientists in Switzerland, France and Germany, studied the number of diamonds in the Almahata Sitta meteorite debris crashed into the Nubian desert , Sudan, October 2008. They conclude that they may come from a primitive planet that existed at least 4.55 billion years ago.

Research team analyzing diamonds in the Almahata Sitta meteorite.(Photo: EPFL).

Diamonds in meteorites contain very small crystals that require high pressure to form, according to Philippe Gillet, planetary scientist at the Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology, co-author of the study. The team calculated the required pressure of about 20 billion pascal (Pa). This shows that this planet is at least as big as Mercury, even Mars.

Scientists have long suggested that the original solar system contained more planets. , one of the early planets, believed to collide with the young Earth, triggered a large amount of matter that later created the Moon.

The early universe could exist more planets than today.(Photo: NASA).

"We are holding the vestiges of the first generation of the planet. This generation today no longer exists due to destruction or integration into a larger planet , " Gillet said.

The method used in the new study is very assured and this conclusion seems reasonable, according to Addi Bischoff, a meteorite expert at Muenster University. He argued that more evidence of high pressure could be found in minerals around the diamond.