Titanium

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Titanium (pronounced /taɪˈteɪniəm/) is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Sometimes called the “space age metal”, it has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant (including to sea water, aqua regia and chlorine) transition metal with a silver color. Titanium can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, molybdenum, among other elements, to produce strong lightweight alloys for aerospace (jet engines, missiles, and spacecraft), military, industrial process (chemicals and petro-chemicals, desalination plants, pulp, and paper), automotive, agri-food, medical prostheses, orthopedic implants, dental and endodontic instruments and files, dental implants, sporting goods, jewelry, mobile phones, and other applications. Titanium was discovered in England by William Gregor in 1791 and named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth for the Titans of Greek mythology.

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. The metal is extracted from its principal mineral ores via the Kroll process or the Hunter process. Its most common compound, titanium dioxide, is used in the manufacture of white pigments. Other compounds include titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) (used in smoke screens/skywriting and as a catalyst) and titanium trichloride (TiCl3) (used as a catalyst in the production of polypropylene).

The two most useful properties of the metal form are corrosion resistance and the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal. In its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but 45% lighter. There are two allotropic forms and five naturally occurring isotopes of this element; 46Ti through 50Ti, with 48Ti being the most abundant (73.8%). Titanium's properties are chemically and physically similar to zirconium.

For more information about Titanium, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with titan

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Robot Armada Might Scale New Worlds

Robot Armada Might Scale New Worlds

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (11) | comments 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes.


Alfalfa sprouts key to discovering how meandering rivers form and maintain

Alfalfa sprouts hold the line on meandering streams (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sinuous, meandering streams produce diverse and wildlife-rich habitats and are the aim of many river restoration efforts, but until now, the bank, water flow and sediment conditions required ...


Exotic life beyond Earth? Looking for life as we don't know it

Exotic life beyond Earth? Looking for life as we don't know it

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (24) | comments 8

Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research institute in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with "exotic" biochemistry and solvents, such as sulphuric acid instead of water. Their research ...


Global view of valleys on Titan shows north south contrast

Global view of valleys on Titan shows north south contrast

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 0

A team of international scientists led by Mirjam Langhans, from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will present first results of a global analysis of spatial patterns, occurrence and origin of river channels ...


Titan

Scientists unravel the chemistry of Titan's hazy atmosphere

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 15, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

A team of University of Hawai'i at Mānoa researchers led by Ralf Kaiser, physical chemist at UH Mānoa, unraveled the chemical evolution of the orange-brownish colored atmosphere of Saturn's moon ...


Titan

Saturn Moon Could Power 150 Billion Labor Day Barbecues

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 07, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (8) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since its discovery by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens in 1655, Saturn's most massive moon, Titan, has been known as a place of mystery and intrigue. The large, cloud-enshrouded moon is ...


Detail from a Cassini radar image of sand dunes on Titan

Scientist finds alternate explanation for dune formation on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 25, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

A new and likely controversial paper has just been published online in Nature Geoscience by LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology Chair Patrick Hesp and United States Geological Survey scientist David ...


Caltech scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan

Scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 1

For all its similarities to Earth -- clouds that pour rain (albeit liquid methane not liquid water) onto the surface producing lakes and rivers, vast dune fields in desert-like regions, plus a smoggy orange ...


Surface features on Titan form like Earth's, but with a frigid twist

Surface features on Titan form like Earth's, but with a frigid twist

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan turns out to have much in common with Earth in the way that weather and geology shape its terrain, according to two pieces of research to be presented at the XXVII General ...


Tiny Saturn Moon Could Be Targeted in Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Evidence for ocean on Enceladus: Tiny Saturn Moon Could Be Targeted in Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 22, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plumes spewing from a tiny moon of Saturn - a moon roughly the width of Arizona - are filled with molecules that suggest that the moon, Enceladus, is likely another place in the solar system ...


Cassini Finds Titan's Clouds Hang on to Summer

Cassini Finds Titan's Clouds Hang on to Summer

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cloud chasers studying Saturn's moon Titan say its clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion.


Subterranean oceans on Saturn's moon Titan

Subterranean oceans on Saturn's moon Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 06, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (15) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons and some topsy-turvy topography in which the summits of its mountains lie lower than its average surface elevation, ...


Cassini Provides Virtual Flyover of Saturn's Moon Titan

Cassini Provides Virtual Flyover of Saturn's Moon Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Fly me to the moon"-to Saturn's moon Titan, that is. New Titan movies and images are providing a bird's-eye view of the moon's Earth-like landscapes.


Four of Saturn's moons parade by their parent

Four of Saturn's moons parade by their parent

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 17, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

On 24 February 2009, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a photo sequence of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet. The moons, from far left to right, are the white icy moons ...


Cassini Maps Global Pattern of Titan's Dunes

Cassini Maps Global Pattern of Titan's Dunes

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 27, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Titan's vast dune fields, which may act like weather vanes to determine general wind direction on Saturn's biggest moon, have been mapped by scientists who compiled four years of radar data ...