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.

  • ashok36@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Moebius@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Not necessarily, scientists think we will hit an island of stability and eventually have high atomic weight elements that have very slow decay rates.