Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2022

24 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine — an element found in our bones and teeth as fluoride — is forged in the Universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Ar- ray (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, a team of astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. This is the first time fluo- rine has been spotted in such a dis- tant star-forming galaxy. The most distant detection yet of fluorine in star- forming galaxy by ESO - Bárbara Ferreira