6 Comments

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  Farmboy at 10:08 PM JST - 6th June

  Brownleeite? Does it resemble a girl scout cookie? I wonder where the name came from... If Keiko Nakamura discovered it, why not call it Keikite, or Nakamite?

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  Sarge at 10:40 PM JST - 6th June

  Brownleeite is named after University of Washington astronomer Don Brownlee. Apparently it can't be manufactured, only collected in the dust brought by comets from who knows where.

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  treebeard at 05:56 AM JST - 7th June

  maybe she is waiting to discover the "dilithium crystals"

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  borscht at 08:28 AM JST - 7th June

  I'm not a mineralologist but isn't this redundant:

  they are a manganese silicide composition of manganese and silicon.

  I mean, doesn't manganese silicide mean made of manganese and silicon?

  Is this how new minerals are created, by combining two known minerals? I was kind of hoping for some completely alien mineral. But this is still fascinating news.

  And Sarge, thanks for the Brownlee connection; it's always nice to have good information about a news article.

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  Farmboy at 08:30 AM JST - 7th June

  Sarge,

  Thanks. I didn't know that. It would be nice to have a kind of comet dust named after you, I'd imagine.

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  Sarge at 09:11 AM JST - 7th June

  treebeard ( treebeard? I can just imagine a tree with a beard! ) - dilithium crystals are rare indeed, ha ha ha!

  Farmboy - How about "Sargitte"?

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