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general crystal, mineral news from issue 61
same time next year!
If you missed the Perseid meteor shower in August, not to worry just keep an eye out next year!
should we be concerned?
NASA has brought a Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope out of storage to join the hunt for asteroids that maybe heading our way…
I'm sure we all remember the Russian meteorite in February, but did you know that the energy released as it hit the atmosphere was equivalent to 30 x the Hiroshima atom bomb and that hundreds of tons of dust still remain in the atmosphere.
Researchers discovered that they could track the dust plume by satellite. On average 30 tonnes of space dust lands each day!
more from orkney
Another inscribed stone has been discovered at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney Isles Scotland, apparently this one has finer detail and has been described as 'a complex piece of art'.
floating diamonds?
Well, University of Rochester researchers have managed to levitate a diamond with a laser, only a small one but they did it which shows how light exerts force on objects.
Dominating the diamond supply market are countries such as South Africa, Canada and Russia however geologists are certain that parts of Southeast India have the correct properties to yield large quantities of diamonds as well. Interestingly the geologists stumbled upon this conclusion whilst exploring for other minerals.
on the market
Haven't yet heard how they stand up to serious guitar use but we've seen a few lapidarists tackle carving stone guitar picks available, approximately 1.5-2mm thick.
day trip diamond find
12 year old finds diamond 'haul' whilst on holiday, Michael Dettlaff visited the Crater of Diamonds park and after 10 minutes found a 5.16 ct rough diamond, it wasn't till later in the day that they showed it to Park staff and they told him it was a diamond. The stone potentially if good enough to cut could realise a few thousand pounds.
Have you come across
the term laser ablation?
Well in the search for ever expensive rare earth elements, scientists are now re-examining old mine tailings which were previously overlooked whilst extracting other minerals.
By firing a laser at samples they're able to test the rock with a mass spectrometer and determine quickly and easily what it's composition is.
The full name of the technique is Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
mining asteroids
We've mentioned the plans for mining asteroids before, a step on and researchers at The University of Strathclyde have now chosen 12 possible candidates that can be mined by todays existing technology. The 12 were selected from a list of a possible 9,000 near earth objects.
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