Hypatia is a small stone, believed by some to be the first known specimen of a comet nucleus, although defying physically-accepted models for hypervelocity processing of organic material.
Discovery and name
Hypatia was discovered in December 1996 by Aly A. Barakat at, directly in proximity to a dark, slag-like glassy material that is interpreted to be a form of Libyan desert glass. The rock has been named after Hypatia of Alexandria – the philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, and inventor. Tests done in South Africa by Researchers Jan Kramers and Georgy Belyanin of the University of Johannesburg show that Hypatia contains microscopic diamonds. Due to the presence of several anomalous isotopic distributions unknown in prior association, some believe the Hypatia material is necessarily of extraterrestrial origin, although significant terrestrialcontamination is dismissed by proponents as being impact-authigenic from incorporation of terrestrial atmosphere, the physics of which are unresolved. Further speculation from comparative summary statistical associations support that Hypatia is a relict fragment of the hypothetical impacting body assumed to have produced the chemically-dissimilar Libyan desert glass. If this association holds, Hypatia may have impacted Earth approximately 28 million years ago. Its unusual chemistry has prompted further speculation that Hypatia may predate the formation of the Solar System. In 2018 Georgy Belyanin of the University of Johannesburg and colleagues have found compounds including polyaromatic hydrocarbons and silicon carbide associated with a previously-unknown nickel phosphide compound. Other observations supporting non-terrestrial origin for the Hypatia samples include ratios of silicon to carbon anti-correlated to terrestrial averages, or those of major planets like Mars or Venus. Some samples of interstellar dust overlap Hypatia distributions, although Hypatia's elemental chemistry also overlaps some terrestrial distributions.
