Superheavy Element 122 Found Naturally in Thorium!

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

First superheavy element found in nature

The hunt for superheavy elements has focused banging various heavy nuclei together and hoping they’ll stick. In this way, physicists have extended the periodic table by manufacturing elements 111, 112, 114, 116 and 118, albeit for vanishingly small instants. Although none of these elements is particularly long lived, they don’t have progressively shorter lives and this is taken as evidence that islands of nuclear stability exist out there and that someday we’ll find stable superheavy elements.

But if these superheavy nuclei are stable, why don’t we find them already on Earth? Turns out we do; they’ve been here all along. The news today is that a group led by Amnon Marinov at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found the first naturally occuring superheavy nuclei by sifting through a large pile of the heavy metal thorium.

What they did was fire one thorium nucleus after another through a mass spectrometer to see how heavy each was. Thorium has an atomic number of 90 and occurs mainly in two isotopes with atomic weights of 230 and 232. All these showed up in the measurements along with a various molecular oxides and hydrides that form for technical reasons.

But something else showed up too. An element with a weight of 292 and an atomic number of around 122. That’s an extraordinary claim and quite rightly the team has been diligent in attempting to exclude alternative explanations such as th epresence of exotic molecules formed from impurities in the thorium sample or from the hydrocarbon in oil used in the vacuum pumping equipment). But these have all been ruled out, say Marinov and his buddies.

What they’re left with is the discovery of the first superheavy element, probably number 122.

What do we know about 122? Marinov and co say it has a half life in excess of 100 million years and occurs with an abundance of between 1 and 10 x10^-12, relative to thorium, which is a fairly common element (about as abundant as lead).

Theorists have mapped out the superheavy periodic table and 122 would be a member of the superheavy actinide group. It even has a name: eka-thorium or unbibium. Welcome to our world!

This may well open the flood gates to other similar discoveries. Uranium is the obvious next place to look for superheavy actinides. I’d bet good money that Marinov and his pals are eyeballing the stuff as I write.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0804.3869: Evidence for a Long-lived superheavy Nucleus with Atomic Mass Number A = 292 and Atomic Number Z @ 122 in Natural Th

In short: Element 122 has been discovered NATURALLY OCCURRING, has at least one isotope (292) which is stable to a hundred million years, and has been seen in a rough order of magnitude ratio of 10E-12 to thorium. I'm seriously thinking it's time to start really looking for more superheavies amongst our actinide ores.

[SirNitram]

One twenty two? My admittably lightly reading on the subject suggested it'd not be until 164 that we got stability.

This needs lots of investigation. But shit. Eka-Thorium?

[Patrick Degan]

This needs lots of investigation. But shit. Eka-Thorium?

Ylludioum Phosdex.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Holy crap! I love this universe! One wonders if it has such a low half-life, how stable/safe to handle would it be.

[Kanastrous]

The name "unbibium" impressed me as really odd until I looked up the IUPAC rules on element-naming.

Once again SD.net expands my education.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ylludioum Phosdex.

Created by the *dramatic voice* Gillette Fusion project?

[fnord]

Right under our noses?

What's the chances this will bugger up a thorium-fuelled reactor? Or is that few parts per trillion contamination too miniscule to worry about? I guess I have some difficulty thinking of actinides as fission products.

[Pu-239]

Hey, this means Naquadah isn't so implausible after all!

[Ariphaos]

One twenty two? My admittably lightly reading on the subject suggested it'd not be until 164 that we got stability.

Next magic number for protons was originally 126, then revised to 114, then it seemed possible that a region from 114-128 might have reasonable stability, given enough neutrons, and that's the last I've read.

This is wow, though, I am still skeptical.

[Dracofrost]

Assuming others can reproduce these results, I wonder how difficult to isolate this element will be?

[fnord]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't be fairly easy to chemically seperate eka-thorium from thorium?

[PeZook]

Am I the only one who thinks it's awesome that they sifted through a pile of thorium atom by atom?

[dragon]

Am I the only one who thinks it's awesome that they sifted through a pile of thorium atom by atom?

Does kind of boggle the mind when you consider how many atoms are in even just a small amount of ore.

[White Haven]

It's such a shame this wasn't element 115. Elerium would have been endlessly awesome. This, however, is almost as awesome, and real to boot.

[Natorgator]

So does a superheavy element have any kind of possible real world applications?

[Darth Wong]

So does a superheavy element have any kind of possible real world applications?

The astronomical cost implied by this method of recovery would suggest "no".

[Rye]

So does a superheavy element have any kind of possible real world applications?

Depends how much paper you need to weigh down "in style."

[Enola Straight]

I wonder...

Is Eka-uranium or Eka-plutonium fissile?

An atom bomb having a critical mass as small as BB would have frightening terrorristic possibilities.

An a-bomb the size of a beer can or a flashlight battery could be hidden anywhere...especially in plain sight.

[Darth Wong]

I wonder...

Is Eka-uranium or Eka-plutonium fissile?

An atom bomb having a critical mass as small as BB would have frightening terrorristic possibilities.

An a-bomb the size of a beer can or a flashlight battery could be hidden anywhere...especially in plain sight.

If it is as stable as they say it is, it probably isn't.

[Steel]

So does a superheavy element have any kind of possible real world applications?

The astronomical cost implied by this method of recovery would suggest "no".

What i dont see is why it cant be separated by chemical means. It should behave very differently to thorium. Even if you get loads of impurities with it it should be a lot cheaper to produce it than via mass spectrometer.

On a side note, cost aside, is it energetically feasible (in terms of then using it in a reactor) to separate isotopes of uranium by mass spectrometer/particle accelerator?

[darthbob88]

So does a superheavy element have any kind of possible real world applications?

The astronomical cost implied by this method of recovery would suggest "no".

What i dont see is why it cant be separated by chemical means. It should behave very differently to thorium. Even if you get loads of impurities with it it should be a lot cheaper to produce it than via mass spectrometer.

It's probably a technically easy thing to do, to separate this stuff from the thorium. The problem is, this stuff is present at only 1 per trillion levels. IOW, assuming 0 cost in separation, one ounce of this stuff would require the consumption of upwards of 31 million tons of thorium, itself not a terribly cheap material. It's doable, we almost certainly have the technology, but it's very, very non-trivial to do.

[Steel]

The astronomical cost implied by this method of recovery would suggest "no".

What i dont see is why it cant be separated by chemical means. It should behave very differently to thorium. Even if you get loads of impurities with it it should be a lot cheaper to produce it than via mass spectrometer.

It's probably a technically easy thing to do, to separate this stuff from the thorium. The problem is, this stuff is present at only 1 per trillion levels. IOW, assuming 0 cost in separation, one ounce of this stuff would require the consumption of upwards of 31 million tons of thorium, itself not a terribly cheap material. It's doable, we almost certainly have the technology, but it's very, very non-trivial to do.

Ah yes true. It should be more feasible if there was a way to do this and then to recover the thorium at the end, as it would then be possible to sell the thorium on again, meaning the only costs would be those of the chemical separation and reprocessing. Of course there would never be any way to make physically meaningful amounts of the stuff from what was found in thorium.

Unless this turns out to have some amazing application in superconductors or something random (highly unlikely) where you can do a lot with very little, this is likely to be totally useless in practical terms.

[Dark Flame]

I told my physics teacher about this and he said if I print off that article and give it to him I'll get extra credit... Thanks guys! (And Einy for noticing it first)