Radium
is a soft, silvery element, the heaviest of the alkaline earth
metals. Found naturally in pitchblende and other uranium ores,
radium is over a million times more radioactive than the same
mass of uranium.
The small amount of radium pictured below with its ore (pitchblende)
is luminescent.
The alpha decay of radium - one of the daughter
products of uranium decay - renders the element and its salts
luminescent - they glow in the dark.
Radium
is a soft, silvery element, the heaviest of the alkaline earth
metals. Found naturally in pitchblende and other uranium ores,
radium is over a million times more radioactive than the same
mass of uranium.
Radium (above) and pitchblende (below.)