Science Alert
28 June 2023
We’ve just identified a brand new isotope of the rarest element in our planet’s crust.
With 85 protons and 105 neutrons, 190astatine is the lightest isotope of astatine discovered yet, and could help physicists better understand the process of alpha decay, and the structure and limitations of atomic nuclei.
“The studies of new nuclei are important for understanding the structure of atomic nuclei and the limits of known matter,” says physicist Henna Kokkonen of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.