Iridium

 

                                                                          Iridium

 

Discovered in 1803 by Smithson Tennant, an English chemist, in London.

Tennant was investigating the insoluble residue left after dissolving crude platinum ore in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids).

In this residue, he identified two previously unknown metals: iridium and osmium.

 He named it iridium (from the Latin iris, meaning “rainbow”) because its salts exhibited strikingly colorful solutions.

Applications Of Iridium

Iridium = COSMIC MARKER 

Asteroid Impact

1978–1980: Geologists Luis and Walter Alvarez discovered a global layer of iridium-rich clay dating back ~66 million years.

 This was key evidence supporting the asteroid impact hypothesis for the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Iridium is rare in Earth’s crust but relatively abundant in meteorites, making it a “cosmic marker.”

Iridium = Cosmic Marker 

Space Technology: Iridium is used to coat satellite components and in deep-space communication satellites (e.g., the Iridium satellite network launched in the late 1990s).

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