News to me, I must have slept through the part where opal can form crystals.
On 9:51:34 pm 08/03/11 Thunder Stone <[email protected]> wrote: > > List: > > Intersting, > > Greg S > > > http://scienceblog.com/46855/first-opal-like-crystals-discovered-in-me > teorite/ > > > First opal-like crystals discovered in meteorite > > > Scientists have found opal-like crystals in the Tagish Lake > meteorite, which fell to Earth in Canada in 2000. This is the first > extraterrestrial discovery of these unusual crystals, which may have > formed in the primordial cloud of dust that produced the sun and > planets of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago, according to a > report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Katsuo > Tsukamoto and colleagues say that colloidal crystals such as opals, > which form as an orderly array of particles, are of great interest to > for their potential use in new electronics and optical devices. > Surprisingly, the crystals in the meteorite are composed of magnetite, > which scientists thought could not assemble into such a crystal because > magnetic attractions might pack the atoms together too tightly. We > believe that, if synthesized, magnetite colloidal crystals have > promising potential as a novel functional material, the article > notes. The formation of colloidal crystals in the meteorite implies > that several conditions must have existed when they formed. First, a > certain amount of solution water must have been present in the > meteorite to disperse the colloidal particles, the report explains. > The solution water must have been confined in small voids, in which > colloidal crystallization takes place. These conditions, along with > evidence from similar meteorites, suggest that the crystals may have > formed 4.6 billion years ago. _______________________________________ > _______ > Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-arc > hives.html > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
