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Showing posts from February, 2012

Rare Earth element found far, far away

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An image of an ultra pure tellurium crystal. February 17, 2012 Taken from: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/heavy-metal-stars-tellurium-0217.html Nearly 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was made of only hydrogen, helium and traces of lithium — byproducts of the Big Bang. Some 300 million years later, the very first stars emerged, creating additional chemical elements throughout the universe. Since then, giant stellar explosions, or supernovas, have given rise to carbon, oxygen, iron and the rest of the 94 naturally occurring elements of the periodic table.