Robert sent in two links. The first one is intriguing – see https://scienceandstuff.com/china-just-discovered-a-new-mineral-and-it-could-power-nuclear-fusion-devices/ … but it involves mining the moon.
His other link is https://scienceandstuff.com/the-universe-may-not-be-homogeneous-after-all/ … which is of course an idea that pops up now and again. Cosmologists can’t decide according to Robert, even as far back as the 1950s and 1960s. He says there is only one cosmological model that predicted the visible universe would be inhomogeneous and filametary and that is plasma cosmology. Robert also wishes readers a merry christmas – endorsed by all at SIS.
Going back to the new mineral, now known as Changesite, found in lunar samples brought back to earth by China’s Chang’e-5 in 2020. It is actually the sixth new mineral discovered in moon samples but the first found by China. Changesite includes helium-3, a version of the element Helium that has a potential as a nuclear fusion fuel source. Helium-3 is common on the moon as a result of the solar wind that frequently buffets the surface.
In one of those strange quirks, William also sent in an interesting link on alien minerals. This time discovered in a meteorite -see https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/alien-minerals-never-found-on-earth-identified-in-meteorite … the meteorite weighed 33,400 pounds, a pockmarked red boulder that sat for many years of the town of El Ali in Somalia. Camel herders had been using it for generations as an anvil to sharpen their blades. It arrived from deep space at an unknown time in the past and it contains three minerals unknown on earth