A new fuel source requiring plentiful iridium would lift prices and create an economic case for mining a deposit in an asteroid , he says .
他说,如果有一种新的燃料源需要使用大量的铱,就会推高价格,从而使小行星采矿产生经济价值。
There they unlock a vault to check that a plum-size cylinder of platinum iridium alloy is exactly where it should be .
在那里,他们打开储藏室,查看一个李子大小的铂铱合金圆柱体是否待在它应在的地方。
The metre was the distance between two scratches on a bar composed of a special alloy of platinum and iridium .
1米是指一根铂铱特殊合金杆两端划痕间的距离。
Comets consist of " dirty ice " , rather than solid rock , and so contain little iridium .
彗星是由“脏冰”所组成,而不是像小型那样由固体岩石组成,所以只含有少量的铱。
The team is also working to find a more commonplace , less-expensive material for the catalyst , to replace the relatively rare and costly iridium used in this proof-of-concept study .
The complexity of the latest batch of fake gold would have reduced the profitability of the scam , since it used a significant amount of bullion , and because iridium and osmium are expensive .
This story , though , raises the question of why there is but a single ejecta layer of iridium and shocked quartz in late cretaceous rocks around the world .
然而,这却引发了一个问题:为什么全世界只有一个白垩纪后期的铱和受震石英熔岩层。
Below that iridium layer , the fossil record shows that a riot of species was thriving ; above it , 65 % of them went suddenly missing .
化石记录表明,在铱层下面,极度丰富的物种茁壮成长;而在铱层上面,65%的物种突然消失了。
Iridium is an element that 's rare on earth but common in asteroids , and a fine global dusting of the stuff is precisely what you 'd expect to find if an asteroid struck the ground , vaporized on impact and eventually rained its remains back down .
Indeed , the discovery of a layer of iridium-rich rock ( iridium being one of platinum 's relatives ) was the first sign geologists found of the asteroid impact that is believed to have killed the dinosaurs .