Named after the Greek word for unstable (astatos), Astatine
is a naturally occurring semi-metal that results from the decay of
uranium and thorium. In its most stable form - astatine-210 - it's got a
half-life of just 8.1 hours, which means even if you did happen to
stumble on some of it, half of it would be gone by the end of a work
day. Depending on how it decays, it'll either turn into the isotopes
bismuth-206 or polonium-210.
This instability, combined with its actual scarceness, means that at any one time, there's less than 30 grams of it in the Earth's crust. If scientists need to use it, they have to produce it from scratch, that said, only 0.05 micrograms (0.00000005 grams) of astatine have been produced to date. No one's ever seen it in its elemental state, because if you had enough of it to see it with the naked eye, it would have already been vaporised by the heat of its own radioactivity.That said, scientists assume it would take on a dark or metallic appearance if you could see it.
This instability, combined with its actual scarceness, means that at any one time, there's less than 30 grams of it in the Earth's crust. If scientists need to use it, they have to produce it from scratch, that said, only 0.05 micrograms (0.00000005 grams) of astatine have been produced to date. No one's ever seen it in its elemental state, because if you had enough of it to see it with the naked eye, it would have already been vaporised by the heat of its own radioactivity.That said, scientists assume it would take on a dark or metallic appearance if you could see it.
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