What is Astatine?
Astatine is a semimetallic chemical element classified among the halogens in the periodic table of elements. It is radioactive and extremely unstable, with a half-life of around eight hours. As a result of its instability, astatine is incredibly rare; naturally, around a teaspoon of this element exists at any given time, making it the rarest naturally occurring element. It is also possible to create this element and several isotopes in a laboratory setting, by bombarding bismuth with alpha particles. Because astatine is so rare, it does not have any commercial uses. Consumers probably never interact with it, although scientists certainly do. Like other elements, astatine has been the subject of extensive research in lab settings because scientists are interested in learning more about all of the substances which can be found on Earth. Some researchers suspect that isotopes of the element could potentially be useful in medical imaging studies, especially astatine 211. The short life of
