I remember watching a video by a scientist youtuber (I think) saying that iron was the most stable element and there was a theory or something like that that said if/when the universe degrades the only thing remaining will be iron. I don’t remember when was this who made the video or who they were referencing but if this is an actual theory I’d like to know more about
In: Physics
It is tecnicaly Nickel-62 not iron that hacve the highet nucalr binding energy per nucleon of 8.7946 MeV. It is followed by Iron-58 at 8.7922MeV and Iron-56 at 8.7903MeV
It is all about Nuclear Binding Energy, the energy required to remove a nuclaron, a protons or a neutond, for the core of a atom. If a nucalr reacon create a element with higher nuclear binding energy then energy is released. A graph of it look like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg) You can see if you mege to light element the binding energy increase. The same for if you split heavy element. Nickel-62 that have the highest biding energy so it can be split or merged to release energy.
The reasons it is usaly stated as Iron-56 That is because it have the lowest mass per nucleon not lowest binding energy. Protons have slightly heavier then neutons and Iron-56 have a higher percentage of protons then Iron-58 or Nickel-62. Iron-56 is also produce a lot more in nuclear reaction in stars.
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