|
Sea of Stability
|
The reported synthesis of
element 114 in 1999 appears to lend validity to another
model of nuclear stability which suggests that the magic numbers
are arranged over a mappable "seascape" which includes
narrow islands of special stability.
 Uuq-289 was reported to have an estimated half-life over 100,000 times as long as Uub-277 (element 112, reported in 1996). If this model is
correct in at least some of its aspects, still heavier nucleons
could well turn out to have ordinary stability (i.e., be non-radioactive).
|