News Excerpt: 

Tellurium is produced in Neutron Star Mergers.

About Tellurium:

• Tellurium is present in the Earth’s crust only in about 0.001 parts per million. 
• It is obtained commercially from the anode muds produced during the electrolytic refining of copper. These contain up to about 8% tellurium.
• This element is a poor conductor of heat and only a fair conductor of electricity. 
• Tellurium burns in air or oxygen with a blue-green flame, forming the dioxide (TeO2). 

Uses of Tellurium:

• It is used in alloys, mostly with copper and stainless steel, to improve their machinability. 
• When added to lead, it becomes more resistant to acids and improves its strength and hardness.
• It has been used to vulcanise rubber, tint glass and ceramics, in solar cells, and rewritable CDs and DVDs.
• It is used as a catalyst in oil refining. 
• It can be doped with silver, gold, copper or tin in semiconductor applications.
• Tellurium found historical applications in the treatment of microbial infections before the discovery of antibiotics.

Other Findings from Neutron Star Mergers:

• It found absorption signatures of strontium, cerium and lanthanide 
• Heavy elements. 
• Heavy elements are those heavier than silver. 
• They are created in a process called rapid neutron capture (r-process), which occurs in environments with a high density of free neutrons. 
• In 2017, gravitational waves from a neutron star merger called GW170817 were detected.
• The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observed the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, which is thought to have been caused by a neutron star merger.

Way Forward:

The discovery of tellurium bolsters the theory that these neutron star mergers are responsible for forming most heavy elements in the universe. This is significant because it helps us comprehend how our planet and the solar system were developed.