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research article

A large planetary body inferred from diamond inclusions in a ureilite meteorite

Nabiei, Farhang  
•
Badro, James  
•
Dennenwaldt, Teresa Katharina  
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December 1, 2018
Nature Communications

Planetary formation models show that terrestrial planets are formed by the accretion of tens of Moon-to Mars-sized planetary embryos through energetic giant impacts. However, relics of these large proto-planets are yet to be found. Ureilites are one of the main families of achondritic meteorites and their parent body is believed to have been catastrophically disrupted by an impact during the first 10 million years of the solar system. Here we studied a section of the Almahata Sitta ureilite using transmission electron microscopy, where large diamonds were formed at high pressure inside the parent body. We discovered chromite, phosphate, and (Fe,Ni)-sulfide inclusions embedded in diamond. The composition and morphology of the inclusions can only be explained if the formation pressure was higher than 20 GPa. Such pressures suggest that the ureilite parent body was a Mercury-to Mars-sized planetary embryo.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41467-018-03808-6
Author(s)
Nabiei, Farhang  
Badro, James  
Dennenwaldt, Teresa Katharina  
Oveisi, Emad  
Cantoni, Marco  
Hébert, Cécile  
El. Goresy, Ahmed
Barrat, Jean Alix
Gillet, Philippe  
Date Issued

2018-12-01

Publisher

Nature Research

Published in
Nature Communications
Volume

9

Issue

1

Article Number

1327

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CIME  
EPSL  
LSME  
Available on Infoscience
August 23, 2018
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/147928
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