Atoms jam-packed with 117 protons have been produced at a particle collider in Germany, confirming the discovery of a new element.
An international team of researchers produced the superheavy element by firing a beam of calcium atoms (20 protons, 28 neutrons) at a target of radioactive berkelium (97 protons, 152 neutrons). At least some of the atomic nuclei fused and shed a few neutrons to form short-lived atoms containing 117 protons and 177 neutrons. The May 1 study in Physical Review Letters confirms the 2010 discovery of the element.
Now that element 117 is confirmed, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry needs to give it a name. For now, we’re stuck with ununseptium.
I am wondering if this element can only be artificially produced in the lab, or nature could also produce it. Even if can only be artificially produced, is there a limit in nature of how heavy an element can be. It would be very interesting to know if there is such a limit.
Coincidentally 5th show of cosmos mentioned how when we "touch" each other we actually don't. Our electron force fields repel each other. That's what we feel. Hydrogen fusion occur in sun due to gravity. Other stars can fuse helium to various elements. Looks like some emit iron.
I am not physicist either. But I think all elements in periodic table exist naturally. Not via fusion.
Remembering from my high school physics, I think that the topmost of the heaviset elements of the periodic table were probably in existence during first few moments of the creation. Because they are so heavy, they were very unstable and almost instantly decayed into daughter elements.
Element 117, if ever existed then must be during the first few moments after big bang when the high energy collisions, like the one happened in this particle accelerators, were happening.
All elements must exist naturally that is why they can be created in the first place. It has not been naturally discovered yet but has been created so it must exist. This is why I think it is a discovery and not an invention.
