[meteorite-list] Superheavy element found in nature

From: Rob McCafferty <rob_mccafferty_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 17:45:13 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <820987.2793.qm_at_web51010.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

If this element is confirmed, even if it is 1:10^-12 ratio with thorium, I suspect supernova would be the source.

These are found on earth and are not subject to quite so many cosmic rays
That they are found in thorium, an already heavy element seems to suggest this may well be the case
To still be present on the earth would require them to be unusually stable for a large element. If this element falls into the 'magic number' category it would also suggest a supernova source if found in earth rocks.
Assuming the Presolar nebula was seeded by a supernova, the formation would have been quite swift (~10^8 years). Would that be enough for cosmic ray seeding? If it were, then we should likely find a relative abundance of this new element in meteorites as they have a greater exposure to cosmic rays (constant burial depth over billions of years, no atmosphere to absorb rays, etc) I wonder if there are ever likely to be any plans to conduct this search.
If Mendeleev could predict the properties of elements in the 1890s surely we can suggest a way to isolate this element in the 2000s. Either to confirm or deny its existence.
R McC


An attempt to concentrate his element should be made to either confirm or deny its existence.




--- On Tue, 4/29/08, Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Superheavy element found in nature
> To: cynapse at charter.net, meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 9:04 AM
> Superheavy Fans!
>
> If the Unbibium atom was made in your
> Super Supernova, it would have to be the
> result of lighter elements with extra neutron
> goodness being squeezed together hard enough
> to merge them into unbibium by a kind of
> condensate fusion. Now, supernovae happen
> because stars can't even fuse dinky little 26Fe:
> it tries; it fails; the failed star collapses -- Boom!
> A supernova is the sound of one hand clapping.
>
> Maybe that's the prime source of Superheavies,
> but maybe not.
>
> One of the best methods for producing the
> Superheavies is to bombard an Already-Heavy with
> rare neutron-rich isotopes. 20Calcium-48 is a favorite--
> and it's cheap -- only $200,000 a gram, a price to
> make a meteorite dealer drool...
>
> Here's an very clear and understandable article
> about Superheavies by an expert, Yuri Oganessian:
> http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/19751
> Oganessian is the discoverer of Element 118, temp
> name ununoctium.
>
> But, there are other ways to get a really energetic
> odd isotope -- cosmic rays. Ion accelerators are a
> mere 90% of lightspeed, but cosmic ray nuclei are
> in the 99.999...% class.
>
> So, they claim to have found the Unbibium atoms
> in a deposit of thorium, whoops! in 90Thorium-232.
> All we need is a cosmic ray that just happens to be
> one of the thirty-odd isotopes of Germanium, like
> 32Ge-60:
>
> 90Th-232
> +
> 32Ge-60
> =
> 122Ubb-292
>
> The 32Ge-60 atom would have to have just the right
> speed to be able to merge with the thorium without exciting
> it so much it just goes to pieces, of course, but cosmic
> rays are variable in energy and are made up of every kind
> of nuclei from the lightest to the heaviest elements, so
> there's some 32Ge-60 out there somewhere.
>
> If some Superheavies are formed by cold fusion
> (that's
> what they call it -- it's not the other "cold
> fusion"), then
> meteorites might be a better place to look for the
> naturally
> occurring Superheavies than Earth rocks. The cosmic ray
> exposure of meteorites is greater, so the minute abundance
> of Superheavies might be too.
>
> If I were going hunting with a mass spectrometer, first
> thing I'd do is buy a bag of some NWA with thorium in
> its bulk composition. If what they found is unbibium,
> it's
> a light isotope; the "normal" atomic weight of
> unbibium
> would be 324, not 292. It's short 32 neutrons. They
> also
> say it could be an isotope of elements 124 or 126. Oddly,
> one theory of how to align the extended periodic table
> place cerium, thorium, and unbibium in an extended
> "group."
>
> What we want is to find (a big chunk of) is the
> elements
> on "the Island of Stability" that are long-lived,
> super-dense,
> super-strong, and have other strange properties we can
> exploit!
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability
> Here's an extended Periodic Table that shows all the
> elements that don't exist, but may exist afterall!
> http://www.apsidium.com/ext_pt/expertab.pdf
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Darren Garrison"
> <cynapse at charter.net>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:14 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Superheavy element found in
> nature
>
>
> http://arxivblog.com/?p=385
>
> http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.3869.pdf
>
> This is meteorite related in that, well, if this finding
> pans out, then the
> element has to be supernova generated, and present in
> meteorites (and
> meteorite
> parent bodies), too. And, depending on the chemical
> properties, maybe even
> more
> highly concentrated in meteorites than in the Earth's
> crust. If you look
> hard
> enough, you might find them in meteorites.
>
> (But mostly, just a cool story)
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Received on Fri 02 May 2008 08:45:13 PM PDT