Wassonite is an extremely rare

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

sulfide mineral with chemical formula Ti S. Its discovery was announced in a 2011

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

press release as a single small grain within an enstatite chondrite

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

called "

Yamato 691 The Yamato 691 (abbreviated Y-691) is the 4.5 billion year old chondrite meteorite discovered by members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition on the blue ice field of the Queen Fabiola Mountains (Yamato Mountains) in Antarctica, on Dece ...

", which was found during a 1969 Japanese expedition to Antarctica. This grain represents the first observation in nature of the synthetic compound titanium(II) sulfide. The mineral was named after John T. Wasson, a professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and was approved by the

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

References

Sulfide minerals Titanium minerals Trigonal minerals Minerals in space group 166 {{Sulfide-mineral-stub