Saturday, September 1, 2012

Titanium

Blue moon
Photo Simon Smith NASA APOD
Click here to admire the spectacular photo of full moon over Nottingham, UK by Simon Smith. The bluish areas on Moon's surface are more clearly visible in the original APOD photo. These areas are coloured by titanium oxide and iron.


Titanium on Earth
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant (including sea water, aqua regia and chlorine) transition metal with a silver color.

The element occurs within a number of mineral deposits, principally rutile and ilmenite, which are widely distributed in the Earth's crust and lithosphere, and it is found in almost all living things, rocks, water bodies, and soils. It is also found in coal ash, plants, and even the human body. 

Titanium is always bonded to other elements in nature. It is the ninth-most abundant element in the Earth's crust (0.63% by mass) and the seventh-most abundant metal. It is present in most igneous rocks and in sediments derived from them (as well as in living things and natural bodies of water). Of the 801 types of igneous rocks analyzed by the United States Geological Survey, 784 contained titanium. Its proportion in sois is approximately 0.5 to 1.5%
wikipedia
Titanium in Space
Titanium is contained in meteorites and has been detected in the sun and in M-type stars; the coolest type of star with a surface temperature of 3,200 °C (5,790 °F). Rocks brought back from the moon during the Apollo 17 mission are composed of 12.1% TiO2.
wikipedia


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