Topic summary
Nickel-60
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Isotopes of nickel.
Notable isotopes
Nickel-60 is the daughter product of the extinct radionuclide
Fe (half-life 2.62 My). Because Fe has such a long half-life, its persistence in materials in the Solar System at high enough concentrations may have generated observable variations in the isotopic composition of Ni. Therefore, the abundance of Ni in extraterrestrial material may provide insight into the origin of the Solar System and its early history/very early history. Unfortunately, nickel isotopes appear to have been heterogeneously distributed in the early Solar System. Therefore, so far, no actual age information has been attained from Ni excesses. Ni is also the stable end-product of the decay of Zn, the last rung of the alpha ladder.