Never-before-seen 'crystal-like matter' hidden in a chunk of fossilized lightning is probably a brand new mineral

A close-up of the fossilized lightning, or fulgurite, that contained the potential new mineral. (Image credit: Bindi et al. 2023, (CC BY 4.0))

A potentially brand new mineral may have been hiding inside a chunk of "fossilized lightning" from Florida, scientists have revealed. 

"We have never seen this material occur naturally on Earth," Mathew Pasek, a geoscientist at the University of South Florida, said in a statement. "Minerals similar to it can be found in meteorites and space, but we've never seen this exact material anywhere."