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niobium
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Niobium
Soft, grey-white, somewhat ductile and malleable, metallic element, atomic number 41, relative atomic mass 92.906. It occurs in nature with tantalum, which it resembles in chemical properties. It is used in making stainless steel and other alloys for jet engines and rockets and for making superconductor magnets.
Niobium was discovered in 1801 by the English chemist Charles Hatchett (1765–1847), who named it columbium (symbol Cb), a name that is sometimes still used in metallurgy. In 1844 it was renamed after Niobe by the German chemist Heinrich Rose (1795–1864) because of its similarity to tantalum (Niobe is the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology).
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