Stone contains alien diamonds

A small pebble in Egypt containing microscopic diamonds and many compounds cannot be found anywhere in the solar system.

Hypatia stones are not only alien. It also contains micro mineral compounds that have never been found anywhere on Earth , meteorites or elsewhere in the solar system, according to Science Alert. It was a finding that caused many concerns for researchers about the process of forming the solar system.

Hypatia is found in southwestern Egypt and named after Hypatia, who lived in Alexandria in the 4-5th century. In 2013, researchers claimed the stone was not of Earth origin. Subsequent analyzes revealed a diamond-containing stone that is not a remnant of any known comet or meteorite. Its characteristics do not match any alien material the researchers have recorded.

Fragments of Hypatia stone.(Photo: Science Daily).

A group of researchers from Johannesburg University, South Africa, analyzed the carbon matrix of the stone and found it lacked silicate. It is this feature that makes the Hypatia stone different from other interplanetary materials that have fallen to Earth. The stone also contains minerals that seem to be dated before the Sun. The researchers compared the internal structure of the stone with a broken fruit cake after falling off the rack.

The stone is like a small piece of the original "cake" . The object has an estimated diameter of several meters. However, the composition of the stone reveals many things about the whole object. Nonmetallic meteorites called chondrite have many similarities to Earth, containing small amounts of carbon and many silicon. Hypatia is the exact opposite when it is high in carbon and very small amounts of silicon.

"The more unusual is that this matrix contains a high amount of very special carbon compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH , the main component of interstellar dust , which existed before the solar system formed. Interstellar dust also found in comets and asteroids that have not been heated for a long time in the history of existence , " said Jan Kramers, lead author of the study published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta in February.

Some PAH compounds in Hypatia form diamonds smaller than one micrometer, possibly due to collisions with the Earth. The team also found aluminum in the form of pure metal, which is very rare in the solar system, silicon carbide and silver iodine phosphide in unexpected forms, the same compound mainly phosphorus and nickel.

These characteristics indicate that Hypatia is made up of materials that existed before the sun but the stone itself can form after the Sun, because it needs a cloud like the solar nebula to create a larger object.

"Hypatia is formed in a cold environment, possibly at lower temperatures of liquid nitrogen on Earth (-196 degrees Celsius.) In our solar system, it is much further away than the asteroid belt. Between Mars and Jupiter, where most meteorites are born, " Kramers said.

"Comets mainly come from, out of orbit and about 40 times farther away from Earth to the Sun. Some come from the Oort cloud, even further. We know very little about the composition. "The chemistry of the heavenly bodies out there. Therefore, our next goal is to learn more about Hypatia's origin , " Kramers said.