Scientists have long suspected that at least some diamonds found on Earth hail from the heavens. Diamonds in the Sky By Peter Tyson Glittering stars in the night sky aside, scientists have long known that there are diamonds in the heavens. In 1981, for example, when Smithsonian researchers tried to cut through a large iron meteorite that had crash-landed in the Allen Hills of Antarctica, the sawteeth on their blade got all chewed up. Subsequent x-rays showed that the stone was riddled with microscopic diamonds, the hardest substance known. The scientists theorized that the meteorite's diamonds were born during a cataclysmic collision out in the asteroid belt.
Some scientists think so.
Other meteoritic diamonds apparently hail from deep space. In 1987, a team of researchers headed by Edward Anders and Roy Lewis of the University of Chicago reported the discovery of meteorite-embedded diamonds so miniscule that trillions could fit on the head of a pin. Unlike the Smithsonian diamonds, these microscopic crystals contain an isotopic mixture of xenon gas not found on Earth. The supernova would have sent the diamond-studded material far out into space, where in the fullness of time some pieces eventually fell to Earth. If this scenario is correct, the researchers said, then interstellar dust may be peppered with tiny diamonds.