This Ultradense Asteroid May Contain Elements We’ve Never Seen Before
A new study suggests that atoms could be stable at atomic number 164, which could help explain recent measurements of the ultradense asteroid 33 Polyhymnia.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/solar-system/a45522962/new-element-asteroid/Open linkView original on lemmy.zip
2 replies
Wouldn't any element with that many protons/neutrons be ridiculously short lived though? The strong force isn't strong enough to keep an atom that size together without some wild additional properties.
Not necessarily, scientists think we will hit an island of stability and eventually have high atomic weight elements that have very slow decay rates.