Analyses of rocks obtained during earlier Apollo missions show lower percentages. Titanium oxide bands are prominent in the spectra of M-type stars. The element is the fourth most abundant in the crust of the earth. Titanium is almost always present in igneous rocks and in the sediments derived from them. It occurs in the minerals rutile, ilmenite, and sphene, and is present in titanates and in many iron ores.
Titanium is present in the ash of coal, in plants, and in the human body.
It is an amazingly light and strong metal with an outstanding resistance to corrosion. It is not always easy to tell where utility stops and hype begins. Thanks for the element's name go to Dr. Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a professor of physics at the University of Berlin, who should have taught marketing as well. Titanium, its name borrowed from the Titans, the giants of Greek mythology, is the fouth most common element on earth, much of it locked in deposits in this country and in the former Soviet Union. Then, Lockheed built an airplane almost entirely out of titanium,the A-12 Blackbird spy plane.