• Question: What is the heaviest element?

    Asked by 874putk39 to Jake, James, Pete, Senga, Simonne on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      Great question – actually it keeps changing because chemists keep finding more. (Actually, what they do with really heavy elements is they make them in a laboratory.) At the moment, I think I am right in saying it’s an element called ‘Oganesson’. But there are predictions that even heavier elements could exist.
      ***
      One final fact: really heavy elements are very unstable, which means that if you manage to make them, they only last fractions of a second before decaying (radioactively) into lighter ones.

    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      Hi 874putk39

      the heaviest natural element (so one that occurs naturally on our planet) is Plutonium it has 94 protons in its nucleus (it’s the protons in an element which give it it’s molecular weight) .There are lots of other elements that are heavier than Plutonium but these are all made in a lab by scientists. They are synthesized in nuclear reactors or particle accelerators (that sounds fancy), and they are pretty much made up of the pieces and energy of other elements….so sort of breaking some elements up in to their different bits and then putting them together to make a giant, super heavy element. Jake is totally right that these man made elements can’t exist for long, they break back down in to smaller, natural elements.

      I thought, “why would you try so hard to make something that just breaks up in the real world and can’t be used for anything?” , so I had a look on a few websites and I think I understand now, it’s kind of the same reason all of the scientists I know do what they do….to find out more about how the world and everything in it works.

      I hope my answer wasn’t too long! I just had a lot of fun finding out about it.

      🙂

Comments