A sample of a bizarre crystal once considered unnatural may have arrived on Earth 15,000 years ago, having hitched a ride on a meteorite, a new study suggests.

The research strengthens the evidence that this strange "quasicrystal" is extraterrestrial in origin.

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Quasicrystals were first synthesized in a lab in 1982 by Israeli chemist Dan Shechtman, whose work won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2011. Regular crystals are made up of regular clusters of repeating atoms arranged in particular symmetries. Quasicrystals are orderly, too, but they do not exactly repeat themselves. If regular crystals are like boring bathroom tiles, quasicrystals are like complex tile mosaics.,br>
[,,,] "The fact that the expedition found more material in the same location that we had spent years to track down is a tremendous confirmation of the whole story, which is significant since the meteorite is of great interest because of its extraordinary age and contents," Steinhardt said in a statement.

Extraterrestrial Origin: Bizarre Crystal Zipped Here From Outer Space