Insight into the structure of decagonite – the extraterrestrial decagonal quasicrystal

A set of X-ray data collected on a fragment decagonite, Al 71 Ni 24 Fe 5 , the only known natural decagonal quasicrystal found in meteorite formed at beginning Solar System, allowed us to determine first structural model for quasicrystal. It is two-layer structure with columnar clusters arranged according pentagonal Penrose tiling. The showed peculiarities and slight differences respect those obtained other synthetic quasicrystals. Interestingly, decagonite exhibit low linear phason strain high degree perfection despite fact it was under conditions very far from used laboratory.