Scientists have discovered a previously unknown magnesium isotope

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It is the lightest magnesium isotope in the world.

 

For the first time, scientists have synthesized an isotope of magnesium with just six neutrons in its atomic nuclei.

 

Researchers believe their discovery will help scientists understand how atoms are put together. That's because the models scientists use to determine how atoms behave are limited by unusual isotopes, which have more or fewer neutrons in their nuclei than usual.

 

Michigan State University chemist Kyle Brown says that evaluating these models "in making them better and better, and we can extrapolate out to how things work where we can't monitor them." To make predictions about the things we cannot measure, "we are measuring the things we can measure."

 

According to him, the discovery of magnesium-18, a new isotope of magnesium, will help scientists clarify their views about atoms, but it will not fill in any information gaps. Scientists have discovered new information on how electrons bind to nuclei due to their analyses of the isotope's radioactive decay products.

 

Nuclear atoms

 

There are 12 protons in the nucleus of a pure magnesium nucleus in normal conditions. Students in chemistry classrooms are often dazzled by the brilliant white light emitted by a burning magnesium strip.

 

We find magnesium in the interstellar clouds that formed our solar system because of supernovas emitted by long-dead stars, which burst into flame and seeded the clouds with magnesium. Magnesium is a common element in the Earth's crust and plays an essential part in various chemical compounds in nature and industry.

 

The most common stable magnesium isotope has 12 neutrons in each nucleus, giving this version of the element an atomic mass of 24. Consequently, it is known as magnesium-24.

 

Using the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU, the researchers accelerated a beam of magnesium-24 nuclei to less than half the speed of light for their tests. Magnesium nuclei were then shot into a beryllium foil target, causing it to shatter.

 

Researchers were able to choose from a "soup" of lighter magnesium isotopes as a result of the collision in that step of the process, including the unstable isotope magnesium-20, which has just eight neutrons per nucleus and decays radioactively in a few hundredths of a second.

 

The researchers then shot the magnesium-20 nuclei onto another beryllium target, some 30 meters away, at about half the speed of light.

 

After the collision, magnesium-18, the "lightest" magnesium isotope yet detected, was formed, having 12 protons and six neutrons in its nucleus.

 

It is an isotope that is extremely difficult to locate.

 

Most atomic nuclei can "cloak" themselves in electrons—particles with a negative charge—from their surroundings and become elemental atoms to form chemical compounds.

 

This new magnesium-18 isotope, on the other hand, is unstable and short-lived; there are so few neutrons in the nucleus that half of its nuclei disintegrate in less than one-sextillionth of a second, or 10–21 seconds, due to radioactive decay.

 

As a result, the nucleus of magnesium-18 is "naked" since it departs too quickly for it even to have a chance to "wrap" itself with electrons.

 

According to a statement from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, for the magnesium-18 isotope to decay inside the beryllium target, it must produce stray protons and isotopes neon-16 and oxygen-14.

 

Brown added, "This was a collective effort." Isotope discoveries are rare, and this one is no exception. "It's quite thrilling," says the scientist.

 

Scientists have discovered thousands of isotopes of the 118 most prevalent elements in the periodic table.

 

There are "drops in a bucket," Brown added, but they're "significant drops." "We can all sign our names to this one. I also told my parents that I was a key player in discovering this previously unknown nucleus.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/scientists-create-lightest-magnesium-isotope

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/mikroskop-menggeser-riset-275984/

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