From today until next Wednesday, a billion-year-old black diamond, believed to have come from outer space, is being offered for sale in an online auction, known as “The Enigma”, and it is also believed to be the largest diamond on Earth, and may have been formed by a meteorite impact.
diamond “puzzle” It weighs 555.55 carats, so it is considered very heavy, about the same weight as a banana, and this gemstone is expected to fetch more than $ 6 million at Sotheby’s auction in London by the closing date of online bids next week, according to the site « BBC”.
The black diamond that belongs to the “Mystery” diamond
The space diamond is carbonado, one of the hardest shapes Diamonds Natural, and popularly known as black diamonds, this type of diamond is usually between 2.6 and 3.2 billion years old, long before the existence of dinosaurs. The Earth itself is about 4.65 billion years old, so it is not much older than black diamonds.
Carbonado, or the black diamond to which the “enigma” belongs, is extremely rare, and was only discovered in Brazil and the Central African Republic. space, but its exact origins are shrouded in mystery.
Theories explaining how the “puzzle” is
Carbonado could have formed deep underground, much deeper than water actually knows about diamonds, says Aaron Celestian, a geologist at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
Celestian explained to Archyde.com that there are hypotheses indicating that the mystery formed at the sites of the impact, as a large asteroid fell to Earth, and the competing theory is that it may have formed in outer space before it fell to Earth.
Sotheby’s describes the sale, as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire one of the anecdotes and wonders known to mankind. Its age exceeds one billion years. In addition to its weight of exactly 555.55 carats, specialists modified it and made it 55 faces.