space diamonds

TINY SPACE DIAMONDS SOLVE 20-YEAR MYSTERY IN OUR GALAXY

A research published earlier this week in Nature Astronomy may have solved a mystery that has baffled astronomers in the last 20 years: Using the Green Bank Observatory in Virginia and the Australia Telescope Compact Array in Australia, researchers have concluded that the source of strange microwave signals in the Milky Way, spotted 20 years ago, could originate with tiny hydrogenated diamonds spinning around infant stars.

 

The phenomenon, called “anomalous microwave radiation” (AME), has been thought to radiate from small grains. Now, it turns out that that infrared signals beaming from three spotted AME-positive systems matched that of nanoscale diamonds..

 

Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales and lead author of the study, said in the statement: “In a Sherlock Holmes-like method of eliminating all other causes, we can confidently say the best candidate capable of producing this microwave glow is the presence of nanodiamonds around these newly formed stars”. His team added that there are large volumes of these nanodiamonds spinning around certain young stars, and that these tiny diamond may have found their way to Earth in meteorites.

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