In 2016, a meteorite was discovered on the territory of Buryatia (Russia), which was named "Uakit". Since then, scientists have carefully studied it and they managed to make an important discovery.
A completely new crystalline structure was discovered inside the meteorite, the likes of which have not yet been found on Earth. According to experts, this substance, which is called "wakitite", was formed in the depths of space.
The meteorite was discovered by a group of gold prospectors and is quite small in size, about the size of a fist. And the uakitite in it is even less, only 1-5 microns. But this discovery is very important for science.
The meteorite itself is mostly iron, while wakitite is composed of vanadium nitride. The discovery of this substance was officially announced at the Meeting of the International Meteorite Society, which is taking place in Moscow these days.
According to the press service of the Ural Federal University (UrFU, Yekaterinburg), “the uakitite mineral found in the“Uakit”meteorite has already been officially registered” and that due to its small size, the structure of the new mineral had to be studied using the equipment of the scientific and educational center “Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies »UrFU.
“In order to prove the discovery of a new substance or mineral, it is necessary to obtain data on its crystal structure,” explains Viktor Grokhovsky, professor of UrFU. “Since the size of wakitite is very small, about 1–5 microns, it was impossible to solve this problem using the traditional method of X-ray analysis.
The structure was studied using the equipment of the scientific and educational center "Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies" of the Ural Federal University using electron diffraction."