An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A soft, malleable, silver-white metallic chemical element; symbol Yb. Atomic number 70; atomic weight 173.04; melting point 819°C; boiling point about 1,194°C; specific gravity about 7.0. It has several radioactive isotopes.

See also: From Ytterby, the name of the Swedish village where the mineral ytterbite (the source of ytterbium) was originally found. It was discovered by the Swiss chemist Jean-Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878.