Scientists have finally made an elusive meteorite diamond, predicted to be 50% harder than Earth diamonds

An illustration of a sparkling diamond.

Scientists have created the first sizable meteorite diamond — also known as lonsdaleite or hexagonal diamond — a material predicted to be even harder than the diamonds normally found on Earth.

The high-pressure, high-temperature technique created tiny disks of this ultrahard diamond which could ultimately replace conventional diamonds in applications such as drilling tools and electronics, the scientists reported July 30 in the journal Nature.