GRAPHITE WHISKERS FOUND IN METEORITES

Abstract

WHISKERS MADE OF GRAPHITE have been discovered in meteorites, lending credence to a long-held idea that they may exist in outer space. This in turn may help explain why radiation from some astronomical objects appears dimmed. Astronomers have suggested that needle shapes—whether silicon, graphite, or iron—may be present in interstellar dust, absorbing visible light from some supernovas and infrared light from the centers of some galaxies. Now, for the first time, scientists have examples of graphite whiskers in hand, and “this should result in a better understanding of the basic physical workings of our universe,” Marc D. Fries says. Fries, along with astrobiologist Andrew Steele, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Washington, D.C., examined several carbonaceous chondrite-type meteorites, the sort thought to be formed in the early solar system. Using electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy on meteorite samples, they found calcium-aluminum inclusions that contained the needlelike graphite str...