Exotic proto-mineral 'panguite' from before the planets found in meteor Boffins have discovered a primitive mineral in an ancient meteorite that pre-dates the formation of planets. The Allende meteorite's fireball tore through the atmosphere over Mexico in 1969, exploding thousands of pieces of itself across the state of Chihuahua, but it's just recently that Caltech scientists found a new mineral …
As the majority of meteorites pre-date formation of planets, there are dozens of these"proto-minerals" already known.
My favourite one is the utterly bizzare icosahedrite (www.mindat.org/min-40647.html) - a natural quasicrystal - which was found in terrestrial rock, but analsys suggests the grains were derived from an ancient meteorite that were then redeposited within earth rock.
a fragment of something *inside* another crystal or rock.
So the panguite crystal was inside another mineral - a refactory mineral - that was formed by melting the primordial (pan)gu. Such melting typically ends in a separation of chemicals (think distillation of primordial beer into the refactored spirit and whatever you call the crud that's left behind). One portion of the melted minerals oozed over and around the panguite and the lot froze solid before the panguite crystal could melt. The new wrapper protected the panguite crystal for 4.5b years until exposed in the laboratory.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
