3 ms·
Ha, given that this is cosmologists talking, I assumed “extraordinarily heavy” meant… like, beryllium. Element 260 was a nice surprise.
by didgeoridoo 3y ago
Ha, given that this is cosmologists talking, I assumed “extraordinarily heavy” meant… like, beryllium. Element 260 was a nice surprise.
- WendyTheWillow 3y agoSimilarly, I saw this and thought, "Didn't we know this already?" I was taught this literally a few weeks ago in my "Astronomy for non-STEM majors" class. But then yeah, 260 is a big number, heh.
- varjag 3y agoWasn't the accepted model that formation of these happens only in supernova events?
- Sharlin 3y agoThe article is talking about the r-process, so it’s still supernovas (either core-collapse or more likely neutron star collision) that would have forged these elements. Ancient or not, a stably burning star isn’t going to synthetize nuclei heavier than iron in non-negligible quantities.
- antognini 3y agoSome elements are believed to only form from neutron star mergers.
- rdlw 3y agoAtomic mass 260 != element 260. Bismuth-209 has atomic mass ~209 but is element 83 (123 neutrons add the extra mass). An atomic mass of 260 probably means about... 100-120 protons? That's a guess from eyeballing this chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_stability_of_isotopes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_stability_... Still very cool, but not (far) outside of what has been synthesized.
- didgeoridoo 3y agoAh yep, misread “atomic mass” as “atomic number”. Still, decently heavy :)
- the8472 3y ago260 would be falling short to fall short of the island of stability