How come there are no gaps in the table? If there are 118 elements currently, and the next element to be discovered/created has an atomic number of 120, would there just be a gap at 119th position?
How come we managed to find/create every element without any gaps in the periodic table?
In: 104
Each atom contains a nucleus, which consists of a number of protons and neutrons. These protons and neutrons attract and repel each other through a very complicated (and still not entirely understood) set of interactions involving three forces: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force. It turns out that many different arrangements of protons and neutrons can form a stable nucleus, while others very quickly break apart (“decay”), and others last for a long time before decaying. The atomic number is simply the number of protons in the nucleus, and it turns out that for most atomic numbers there is at least one arrangement that is stable or that holds together for a reasonable amount of time before decaying.
Pretty much all of the stable isotopes can be found in nature somewhere (originally they were mostly created by fusion in stars, or in high-energy events such as supernovae) and many of the unstable ones are continuously created during natural decay processes. For example, there are no stable isotopes of uranium, but some of them decay *extremely* slowly, so there is still plenty of uranium around on earth even though it was created billions of years ago. The slow decay of uranium constantly produces various other isotopes, including for example isotopes of radon, none of which are long-lasting. But because it’s being constantly produced, radon gas can build up in caves and basements and cause health problems.
The remaining isotopes, mostly those with very high atomic numbers, have had to be created and detected in labs. The ones with the highest atomic numbers tend to be extremely unstable, so are very difficult to detect before they decay. In principle there might be an element whose isotopes are *so* unstable that it just isn’t feasible to detect them, so there might be a permanent gap, but that hasn’t happened yet.
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