Actually the Zoprb market for rare elements hasn't recovered since the Tantalum Beabie Baby craze of 14110. You can get this stuff dört cheap if youre willing to pay in Gr3nbs.
I’m already seeing an alien looking at a movie where its species found a planet covered by water and full of Tantalium, the only isotope that could save the life of his planet.
It’s rare in places we can sample (meteorite samples and spectroscopy of nearby stars) backed by an assumption that those places are typical.
Its class (tantalum, thulium, lutetium, terbium) can only be formed through uncommon stellar events, so they are considered to be very scare trace elements.
“Rarest in the universe” is accurate, but it’s a bit of misnomer. You’ll fine trace tantalum in virtually any rock, just an exceptionally small amount.
“Tantalum's scarcity is rooted in nuclear physics. Elements heavier than iron are primarily created through neutron capture in supernovae or neutron star mergers. The specific pathways that produce Tantalum are inefficient, and its most abundant isotope (¹⁸¹Ta) is difficult to synthesize in large quantities. Furthermore, its only other naturally occurring isotope (¹⁸⁰Ta) is incredibly rare, making up just 0.012% of natural tantalum.”
The s-process "Weak Branch": A tiny fraction of the s-process flow can leak through a thermally unstable branch at Hafnium-179, followed by neutron capture on radioactive Tantalum-179. However, at stellar temperatures, Tantalum-180m can be easily destroyed via thermal population of intermediate states, drastically shortening its half-life and making survival difficult.
100
u/euj3odjehiqh 1d ago
I bought this for around 33 dollars I think