Neeraja Chinchalkar – The Conversation

A satellite image of the Clearwater Lakes, the site of two large asteroid impacts that struck Earth about 290 million years ago. (NASA Earth Observatory)

July 24, 2025

Cubic zirconia only forms under extreme temperatures, like those produced when an asteroid impacts Earth

Neeraja Chinchalkar, Western University; Gordon Osinski, Western University, and Timmons Erickson, Curtin University

Cubic zirconia, a popular diamond substitute, only occurs naturally under extreme conditions. Finding cubic zirconia in craters reveals parts of the Earth’s history.

The OSIRIS-REx capsule carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu lands in Utah on Sept. 24, 2023. (NASA/Keegan Barber)

November 14, 2023

NASA’s first successful recovery of asteroid samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe

Neeraja Chinchalkar, Western University

In September 2023, a NASA mission successfully brought samples of an asteroid down to Earth in a sealed capsule. Analysis of these samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe.

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