Like what’s stops them at 118?
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From what I’ve read, there’s a limit of how big an atom can be, because after a certain point it won’t be able to capture electrons. Also large atom nuclei tend to be unstable and fall apart into smaller stable atoms
Nothiong stops it.
Nature stopped at Uranium, 92 protons. That’s the heaviest thing a super nova can make.
We made everything after Uranium in labs. We’ve made up to 118 protons. It it so radioactive, it exists for like millionths (0.0000001) of a second before it decays and falls apart.
Is it predicted there is a number of protons in the mid 100s that will hit something called an island of stability where these super heavy elements may exist and be stable, but its just theorized currently.
What is keeping us at 118 right now? We need stupid levels of energy to go past. To do that we need a bigger and larger Large Hadron Collider that can push even more energy into the particle collisions.
An atom’s element is determined by how many protons it has, and you can only cram so many protons into an atomic nucleus. Protons are positively charged and repel each other, which would break up a nucleus if not for the much-stronger ‘nuclear force’ binding them together. Problem is, the range of the nuclear force is so extremely short that it has trouble reaching all the way across large nuclei. If a nucleus grows too big, a proton on one side will feel the electric repulsion from a proton on the other side, but not the attraction from the strong force, allowing the nucleus to fly apart.
The nucleus of an atom contains positively charged protons and neutrally charged neutrons. They are surrounded by negatively charged electrons.
Since the nucleus only contains positively and neutrally charged particles, in order to keep the nucleus from pushing itself apart more neutrons need to be added the more protons you have.
The ratio begins breaking down when you get a big enough nucleus, requiring many neutrons for every proton added. When the nucleus is big enough the positive charge overwhelms and parts of the nucleus fly off. This is one type of nuclear fission. This brings the total number of protons down, which changes the atomic number, which is the elements definition.
The higher protons count the more unstable atom. Atom with 118 protons can exists just tibe portion of second. While theoretically it is possible to add protons indefinitely our tech does not allow to register 119 oroton atom. It is unclear if it was created at all or decayed before it existence was captured.
Protons don’t want to be near other protons. Neutrons really want to be near protons.
So inside an atom, the protons push apart but the neutrons hold them together.
Now, neutrons are like glue. They can only hold on to protons almost right next to them. Protons, however, can push on all the other protons in a nucleus. This means that adding more neutrons can’t keep up with a growing nucleus. If it gets too large, the protons win and it falls apart.
The inside of a heavy atom is made up of “particles” of helium that are being “glued” together by free neutrons stuck in between them.
The amount of force that the bond between two particles of helium and the neutron between them can hold is fixed, but the amount of force being applied to that bond is not. As the atom grows bigger, each free neutron has to hold more and more weight as additional mass is added to it.
Think of it like a chain of people holding hands. If you’re holding hands with one person and they fall down, you only have to be able to support their weight to maintain your grip on them. But if there are 10 people in that chain and they all fall down, now you have to hold the weight of all 10 of those people to keep your grip. The same principle applies to the interior of an atom.
Take Tungsten – that’s made up of 37 helium “particles” and 36 free neutrons. Each of those 36 free neutrons has to support the weight of not just the two heliums that its holding together – but the weight of every other particle in that atom. That’s a total load bearing capacity of ~183 for each neutron to be able to hold the atom together.
Now look at Uranium 238 – that’s made up of 46 helium “particles” and 54 free neutrons. Although there are more neutrons to hold that atom together, that doesn’t decrease the amount of weight that any individual neutron needs to hold, which has now risen to ~237. In other words, each neutron in a Uranium atom is supporting 54 more weight than any given neutron in a Tungsten atom.
If each neutron in that Uranium atom can’t hold a weight of 237, the atom will eventually fall apart.
Since the inside of an atom is a complex 3D structure, there are different ways to arrange the particles inside of it. Some of those arrangements allow for a more equal sharing of weight between the free neutrons than others, and thus are more stable. But at a certain point there just isn’t any way to arrange the inside of an atom in a way to overcome the inherent maximum load bearing capacity of a free neutron.
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