100 things blogging challenge: 7

[untonuggan]

I enjoyed making a Washington, DC/Smithsonian-related post, so here's another one. Many people know about the Hope Diamond, housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. However, there is another diamond - or rather, many very small diamonds - that I find infinitely more interesting. It's just around the corner, and hardly anyone seems to notice it.

The diamonds are in a little glass tube at the entrance to the Meteorite exhibit, or rather the end of the Gems and Minerals Hall. They're not very imposing at all, and you have to use a microscope to see them. Why are they so exciting, you may wonder? Well, they may be one of the oldest things in our solar system.

Most of the "old" things in our solar system were formed around the birth of our sun, about 4.5 billion years ago. However, these lovely little specks of diamonds were formed - at least, scientists are pretty sure that they were - during the supernova of another star. It's been awhile since I've paid homage to them (for they're another thing I visit when I go to the Smithsonian, and sadly, they don't merit their own web page for me to look it up), but consider this: these little bits of diamond dust were once - something - in another solar system. Maybe even another life form (although don't quote me on that, as there is no evidence to back up that particular guess. But at least some form of matter.) The sun went supernova and in that flash, they became diamonds. They survived through space and time to arrive here, on Earth, where eventually someone picked up the meteorite that they were part of and thought, "Huh, this looks worth investigating." And then they figured out what they probably were.

Pretty frelling awesome.

Here's an article about diamonds that hail from outside our planet, if you're interested in reading more. It's not specifically aimed at the ones at the museum, but that's as good as I can get to a direct link.