Astone belonging to a brooch from Tutankhamun’s treasurehave proportionedevidence of a comet impact against the earth’s atmosphere. This finding could provide new clues about the formation of the Solar System.
The analyzes, released in the magazineEarth and Planetary Science Letters, reveal thatthe comet entered the atmosphere over Egypt about 28 million years agoand it exploded, heating the sand to a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Celsius. Of this eventa huge amount of yellow silica glass was born, which experts call Libyan desert glassand that has been studying for years.
One of thesecrystalspolished by antique jewelers and deformed into the shape of a scarab, it is found in one of thejewels belonging to Tutankhamun. When studying it, Jan Kramer, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), has detected that it is the first known specimen of a comet nucleus.
On the other hand, everything indicates that the explosion produced microscopic diamonds. “Diamonds are produced from carbon support material. They are normally formed deep within the Earth, where the pressure is high, but very high pressure can also be generated with a collision. Part of the comet impacted and the collision the impact produced the diamonds, “explained Kramer.
“NASA and ESA spend billions of dollars collecting a few micrograms of comet material and bringing it back to Earth, and now we havea new approach to study this material without spending billions of dollars to collect itn “, emphasizes the researcher.
