Posted on 09/23/2023 11:13:33 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Exactly what I was thinking. This article is silly and devoid of empirical science.
Unknowniuminum!
maybe Unobtainium or aintnosuchthingasthisium
Transparent aluminum.
Minerals in geology are classified according to their chemical composition and their crystaline structure. Even the most common rock you can find is made up of particles that are each a tiny crystal with a unique chemistry all fused together because of the intense heat and pressure exerted on them.
An unknown mineral refers - and this is where the writing gets sloppy - to a chemical makeup and crystaline structure that has not been seen before and indicates that a different formation process produced it separate from known formation processes. The reporting is bad, but it's good science. And no there are no unknown elements in this stuff. We have discovered or produced all of the stable elements that can exist.
Does the article mention the properties or elements in the new minerals?
5.56mm
Uh…show me where this new stuff is on the Periodic Table.
Well, in fairness, the Periodic Table classifies elements, not minerals, although in some cases, they are the same.
Exactly so. These particular compounds are not formed by natural processes on Earth, ergo, we have not seen them yet. Not until a chunk of debris arrived from someplace where those processes do exist.
Also, the author's use of the term 'elements' is grossly incorrect. We have here once again an example of an article on a subject that the writer has a distinct lack of knowledge of. The terminology is therefore a bit, shall we say, "inaccurate".
FTA: two alien minerals unknown to Earth
1) Dilithium
2) Naquadria
Are they making more spaces on the periodic table?
Well, are they made from alien elements not on our periodic table? Or are they just new compositions of elements we know about already?
“Elaliite is a mineral with formula Fe 9PO 12 that was first synthesized in a laboratory in the 1980s”.
Slicing the ore sample with a dirty knife?
Minerals are combinations of elements. I was hoping they would show us a chemical diagram of the composition of the new minerals.
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