What is the hardest object in the universe?

Answer 1

Diamond is the worlds hardest mineral, ranking a 10 out of 10 on Moh's Hardness Scale

Well Diamond is WRONG.It no longer the hardest mineral.

Currently, diamond is regarded to be the hardest known material in the world. But by considering large compressive pressures under indenters, scientists have calculated that a material called wurtzite boron nitride (w-BN) has a greater indentation strength than diamond. The scientists also calculated that another material, lonsdaleite (also called hexagonal diamond, since it's made of carbon and is similar to diamond), is even stronger than w-BN and 58 percent stronger than diamond, setting a new record.

This analysis marks the first case where a material exceeds diamond in strength under the same loading conditions, explain the study's authors, who are from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The study is published in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

"The new finding from our results is that large normal compressive pressures under indenters can transform certain materials (such as w-BN and lonsdaleite) into new superhard structures that are harder than diamond," coauthor Changfeng Chen from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told PhysOrg.com. "This is a new mechanism that can be used to design new superhard materials."The scientists explain that the superior strength of w-BN and lonsdaleite is due to the materials' structural reaction to compression. Normal compressive pressures under indenters cause the materials to undergo a structural phase transformation into stronger structures, conserving volume by flipping their atomic bonds. The scientists explain that w-BN and lonsdaleite have subtle differences in the directional arrangements of their bonds compared with diamond, which is responsible for their unique structural reaction.

Under large compressive pressures, w-BN increases its strength by 78 percent compared with its strength before bond-flipping. The scientists calculated that w-BN reaches an indentation strength of 114 GPa (billions of pascals), well beyond diamond's 97 GPa under the same indentation conditions. In the case of lonsdaleite, the same compression mechanism also caused bond-flipping, yielding an indentation strength of 152 GPa, which is 58 percent higher than the corresponding value of diamond.

"Lonsdaleite is even stronger than w-BN because lonsdaleite is made of carbon atoms and w-BN consists of boron and nitrogen atoms," Chen explained. "The carbon-carbon bonds in lonsdaleite are stronger than boron-nitrogen bonds in w-BN. This is also why diamond (with a cubic structure) is stronger than cubic boron nitride (c-BN)."

Answer 2

Rock hardness may be an ill-defined, multi-dimensional concept. Hardness could be its resistance to fracture, resistance to indentation, resistance to bending or twisting, resistance to abrasion, or possibly other factors.

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness typically addresses mineral hardness solely based on a minerals resistance to being scratched by another mineral. Rocks, however, are normally combinations of minerals with their own Mohs hardness, natural glass, or organically formed materials, making their hardness based on the Mohs scale inadequate in most circumstances.

Chert and quartzite are hard (not easy to fracture, resistant to weathering, and composed mostly of quartz--a hard mineral on the Mohs scale). Unweathered granites are also extremely durable because of their mineral composition and because of their interlocked crystalline structure.

Diamond, a mineral, not a rock, is the hardest mineral on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on its resistance to scratching. The only mineral capable of scratching a diamond is another diamond. But as far as resistance to fracture--forget about it; diamond is easily fractured (or cleaved), a fact that allowed it to be shaped into faceted gemstones by early jewelers.

Answer 3

Right now, diamond is the hardest substance known to man, yet a new discovery is unraveling right now - something called a nanotube. These nanotubes are made out of only carbon (like diamond), but they are arranged differently - a pattern of pentagons and hexagons (just like a soccerball) - and are supposedly wicked strong. An idea that is starting to form in everybody's head is an elevator into space! What they would do is unravel a satellite (thats what a satelite is - coiled strong wire or something) and connect it to Earth. If this were to happen, then this would, of course, be an enormous scientific breakthrough. Also, it is really easy to make, extremely light and compact, and, of course, extremely tough. (They could be used to make 30G memory chips the size of old 15G memory chips or so). However, there is a huge chance that they are poisonous or nuclear or something - the same thing happened a few years ago - scientists started selling this new invention and not realising the dangers they were putting the world into. Who knows what will happen in the future?

Answer 4

The hardest substance in the universe is the crust of a star. It is 10,000,000,000 harder than steel.

Answer 5

the universe i mean think about it.

Answer 6

Diamond is the hardest natural mineral.

Answer 7

it is the dimond

Answer 8

This material is diamond.

Answer 9

Brett mills