Science. 1991 Nov 22;254(5035):1188-91. doi: 10.1126/science.254.5035.1188.
Fine-grained diamonds, the most abundant form of circumstellar dust isolated from primitive meteorites, have elemental and isotopic characteristics that are dependent on the host meteorite type. Carbon isotopic compositions vary from -32 to -38 per mil, and nitrogen associated with the diamond changes in overall abundance by over a factor of four from 0.2 to 0.9 weight percent, between ordinary and CM2-type chondrites. Although the ratio of carbon to nitrogen evolves in a distinctive way during combustion of diamond separates, metamorphic degassing of nitrogen is not the main cause of the differences in nitrogen content. The data suggest that intrinsic differences must have been inherited by the diamonds at the time of their formation and that the diamonds were distributed heterogeneously in the solar nebula during condensation. However, the hypothesis that a distinct nitrogen carrier remains hidden within the diamond cannot be ruled out.
细粒金刚石是从原始陨石中分离出来的最丰富的星际尘埃形式，其元素和同位素特征取决于母体陨石类型。碳同位素组成的变化范围为-32 到-38 千分比，与金刚石相关的氮的总丰度变化超过四倍，从普通球粒陨石和 CM2 型球粒陨石的 0.2 到 0.9 重量百分比。尽管在金刚石分离物的燃烧过程中，碳与氮的比值以独特的方式演化，但氮的变质脱气并不是造成氮含量差异的主要原因。这些数据表明，在形成金刚石时，其内在差异必然已经被继承下来，并且在冷凝过程中，金刚石在太阳星云中的分布是不均匀的。然而，不能排除一种特殊的氮载体仍然隐藏在金刚石内部的假说。
