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New Uranium Isotope
News: Physicists in Japan have found a new isotope of uranium with the atomic number 92 and mass number 241 while searching for a “magic number.”
The mass of its nucleus was determined and it was determined to be uranium-241. According to theoretical calculations, the half-life of this new isotope might be 40 minutes.
Due to the extraordinary difficulty of synthesising a nuclide in this region by general reaction, this finding is the first of its sort since 1979.
This discovery has ramifications for the design of nuclear power plants and simulations of exploding stars as well as for improving our understanding of nuclear physics.
Understanding the synthesis of such heavy elements in explosive astronomical occurrences requires nuclear information that can be obtained by measuring the mass of uranium and the nearby elements.
