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Possible in situ formation of meteoritic nanodiamonds in the early Solar System

Nature volume 418, pages 157–159 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Grains of dust that pre-date the Sun provide insights into their formation around other stars and into the early evolution of the Solar System1,2,3,4. Nanodiamonds recovered from meteorites, which originate in asteroids, have been thought to be the most abundant type of presolar grain3,4. If that is true, then nanodiamonds should be at least as abundant in comets, because they are thought to have formed further out in the early Solar System than the asteroid parent bodies, and because they should be more pristine5,6,7. Here we report that nanodiamonds are absent or very depleted in fragile, carbon-rich interplanetary dust particles, some of which enter the atmosphere at speeds within the range of cometary meteors8,9. One interpretation of the results is that some (perhaps most) nanodiamonds formed within the inner Solar System and are not presolar at all, consistent with the recent detection of nanodiamonds within the accretion discs of other young stars10. An alternative explanation is that all meteoritic nanodiamonds are indeed presolar, but that their abundance decreases with heliocentric distance, in which case our understanding of large-scale transport and circulation within the early Solar System is incomplete11.

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Figure 1: Bright-field images of a thin section of chondritic IDP W7027A8D before and after in situ acid etching.
Figure 2: Experimental lattice-fringe images of nanodiamonds.
Figure 3: Simulated lattice-fringe images.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Bernatowicz for bulk nanodiamond extracts, A.W. Phelps for discussions, and G. Huss for comments and suggestions. This work was supported by NASA and the Georgia Tech Electron Microscopy Center. H.G.M.H. acknowledges support from the NAS/NRC RRA programme.

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Author notes

  1. M. J. Genge

    Present address: Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD, London, UK

  2. J. P. Bradley

    Present address: Institute for Geophysics & Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Stop L-413, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California, 94550, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 30332, USA

    Z. R. Dai & J. P. Bradley

  2. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA

    D. J. Joswiak & D. E. Brownlee

  3. Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, Code 691, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771, USA

    H. G. M. Hill

Authors
  1. Z. R. Dai
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Correspondence to J. P. Bradley.

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Dai, Z., Bradley, J., Joswiak, D. et al. Possible in situ formation of meteoritic nanodiamonds in the early Solar System. Nature 418, 157–159 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00897

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