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Properties, detectability and origin of interstellar diamonds in meteorites

Abstract

Laboratory studies suggest that microdiamonds will be quite elusive in interstellar space, being detectable only if >10% of the carbon is present as diamond. The diamonds apparently formed by condensation in cool stellar atmospheres, and were then impregnated with isotopically anomalous noble gases, such as Xe, from a supernova.

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Lewis, R., Anders, E. & Draine, B. Properties, detectability and origin of interstellar diamonds in meteorites. Nature 339, 117–121 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/339117a0

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