Rare Meteorite Mineral Exhibits Unprecedented Temperature-Stable Thermal Conductivity

A rare mineral found in meteorites and on Mars has drawn scientific interest for its unusual thermal behavior. Unlike typical materials, this substance maintains nearly constant thermal conductivity across temperature changes, challenging established theories. The discovery, led by researchers at Columbia University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals a material with properties between those of crystals and glasses.

Crystals generally lose thermal conductivity as temperature rises, while glasses display the opposite trend—differences that impact electronics miniaturization, waste heat recovery, and aerospace thermal shielding. Using quantum mechanical equations and machine learning, the team predicted the existence of a hybrid material whose atomic structure combines order and disorder, exhibiting stable thermal conductivity from 80K to 380K.

This prediction was experimentally confirmed by a Sorbonne University team using samples from a meteorite that fell in Germany in 1724, analyzed with authorization from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The mineral—tridymite, a form of silicon dioxide—demonstrates behavior similar to the Nobel Prize–winning “Invar effect” (constant thermal expansion). Further studies indicate that long-term heat aging in steelmaking furnace bricks may also create such materials, offering potential to improve high-temperature control and reduce the steel industry's carbon footprint—currently around 1.3 kg of CO₂ per kilogram of steel, with global production nearing one billion tonnes annually.

The finding opens new avenues for designing materials resilient to extreme temperature fluctuations and may shed light on planetary thermal evolution. Insights into its quantum mechanisms could also advance thermoelectric devices, neuromorphic computing, and spintronic technologies. The Columbia team continues to explore industrial applications through theoretical modeling, AI simulations, and materials design.