back to article 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 …

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  1. wowfood

    Meteorite?

    Or a cleverly disguised alien probe so far advanced our minds can't comprehend it.

  2. Robert E A Harvey

    IRTA "Penguinite", and wondered if it glowed green. And deprived Linux of its super-powers.

  3. Jolyon Ralph
    Boffin

    Not really news

    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.

    1. The Axe
      Alien

      Re: Not really news

      So is it one of the crystals that powers the ZPM in SG?

      1. ukgnome
        Alien

        Re: Not really news

        More similar to Naquida then you could possibly know

  4. launcap Silver badge
    Happy

    I wonder if..

    .. you get these asteriods in high-sec systems and what proportion of mexallon and noxium they contain?

  5. The last doughnut
    Happy

    Its literally amaaaaazing

    So these pre-solar system lumps of rock were formed eons ago in a stellar death? I think there must be a lot more to what goes on inside stars that we still don't have the foggiest about.

  6. Tim Worstal

    Boring

    Who cares about boring old Ti minerals?

    What we want to know is whether there's any scandium in it.

  7. Matt_payne666

    so... how long before we find an iphone case covered in the stuff....

  8. AndrewA
    Boffin

    Technically, an "inclusion" is ...

    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.

  9. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    But does it contain Narrativium?

    That would be really surprising!

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