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.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    31 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
      link
      English
      31 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.