About this Zone

    Brilliant-cut cubic zirconia

    Brilliant-cut cubic zirconia by Saperaud

    Moon

    Moon by GHRevera

Zirconium is a space element!

The abundance of zirconium in lunar rocks (that’s rocks from the moon) is higher than in rocks from the Earth.

It has also been detected in certain stars, including our sun, and meteorites.

It is a soft, malleable, shiny, grey-white metal which is solid at room temperature.

If you wanted to melt zirconium, you would have to heat it up to a scorching 1855˚C. It stays relatively strong at high temperatures, which makes it a very useful metal.

Zirconium is used in vacuum tubes, lamp filaments and even to make artificial limbs because it doesn’t interact with human tissue, and is resistant to corrosion.

It’s also used to make jewellery: cubic zirconium comes from zirconium and looks like diamond!