Iron-60 Was Found in Antarctic Snow

Everyone is familiar with iron, one of the most widespread elements in the world that is so significant that an entire era is named after it. Without iron, all of our magnets would break, not to mention that we couldn't produce nearly anything else in the world that is made of metal. There is a ton of crude iron ore in the world, with an estimated 800 billion tons of it containing 230 billion tons of iron.

There are 24 radioactive isotopes and four stable isotopes of iron. The most stable of them, iron-60, has a half-life of about 2.6 million years. Additionally, it's not the kind of thing that appears randomly. You'll need to search for iron-60 if you want to have your own because it is created during star explosions, such as supernovae.

Iron-60 is ejected into space when stars explode, and trace amounts of it occasionally find their way to Earth. Even some of it has been found in the snow of Antarctica. Five iron-60 atoms were discovered in the 500 kilograms of pristine snow that were gathered to find samples. Only 23 years have passed since the isotope was found for the first time on Earth in some deep-sea soil layers.