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Metals in Orbit

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Science News cover January 6, 1999 Huntsville, AL - The hidden mysteries of metals are being made transparent to scientists doing research in the microgravity environment aboard the Space Shuttle, according to an article in the October 24th issue of Science News. "Space Age Metals" reports how scientists are gaining a better understanding of how metals melt, combine, and resolidfy -- and of the hidden forces and processes that drive these events -- through microgravity research. Using transparent organic materials that replicate different types of metals, researchers have studied the formation of dendrites, branching structures that form as metals cool back into solids.

The behavior of immiscible metals -- metals that normally don't mix, just like oil and water -- has been studied in a way not possible before. Containerless processing, using the TEMPUS and similar units, has provided data not possible to collect on Earth.