does the universe have undiscovered elements because the last one stops at a certain weight is that it?

Answer 1

The periodic table is a complete set of chemical elements for every atomic number (i.e. number of protons) up to about 118 I believe. The problem with the idea of 'undiscovered' elements is that any element with an atomic number above 94 is not known to exist naturally, and has only been created in laboratories, and any element with an atomic number above 100 tends to be highly unstable, decaying in seconds or less. There could well be many more elements out there, possibly forged in catastrophic stellar events like supernovae, but they are not stable enough to be detected before they decay into something else.

Answer 2

an element, its name, is a human construct. Atoms are atoms, Protons are protons, electrons are electrons. We divide atoms by their atomic number, or the number of protons in the atom. An atom with 1 proton is what we call hydrogen. An atom with 2 protons is helium. and so on and so on until you reach Lead, with an atomic number of 82, which is the element with the highest stable atomic number. From then on, elements start to decay. Even element number 83, Bismuth, decays (although its half-life is longer than the age of the universe). As you start adding to the atomic number, half-lives become increasingly smaller. Element 100, Fermium, has a half life of 101 days. Element 105, Dubnium, is 32 hours. Element 110, Darmstadtium, is about 11,000 microseconds. The largest element ever created, element 118, ununoctium, has a half-life of .89 microseconds.

So the larger you go, the smaller the half-lives are. Numbers are numbers, so Element 1 through Element 118 are the same throughout the universe, regardless of what you call them


Now... some scientists theorize that an Island of Stability exists, where atoms with atomic numbers over 200 are stable. However, as far as I know, this is purely theoretical, and besides, would almost certainly not exist naturally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability

Answer 3

They make most of the larger ones by firing charged atoms into each other in supercolliders. Most of them don't last very long at all. It is possible that some new ones could be made. There is even supposed to be some that would have very favorable geometries if the right particles could be collided. That last bit may be science fiction for all I know because the source wasn't very reliable.

Answer 4

there are 90 atoms that are naturally occuridng that we know of. pretty much all elements after that are created by us by firing protons at other atoms. now its very possible, its very likely, that all of these elements exist somewhere in the universe. now there only going to exist for a few minutes tops because their all very unstable. but im sure very very small traces of all of the synthetic elements and more exist somewhere in the universe.

Answer 5

elements consist of atoms but atoms are made of electrons and protons and neutrons but these are made fom sub-atomic particles eventually physicists believe even these subsume to particles called strings which are basically bits of energy - weight is a measure of attraction between heavenly bodies like planets