Some asteroid are dense . So dense in fact , that they may contain laborious factor outdoors of the periodic table , accord to a unexampled study on aggregative compactness .
The team of physicist from The University of Arizona say they were prompt by the possibility of Compact Ultradense Objects ( CUDOs ) with a mass density greater thanOsmium , the densest naturally pass off , stable element , with its 76 proton .
" In fussy , some ascertained asteroids surpass this mass density threshold . Especially notable is the asteroid 33 Polyhymnia , " the squad write in their subject field , adding that " since the mass denseness of asteroid 33 Polyhymnia is far cracking than the maximum lot density of familiar nuclear thing , it can be classified as a CUDO with an unsung composition . "
The team look at the properties of potential elements with atomic numbers ( Z ) high-pitched than thehighest atomic numberin the current occasional board . Though Osmium is the dull unchanging factor , elements with higher nuclear numbers have been produce experimentally .
Oganesson , first synthesized in 2002 bybombardingcalifornium-249 with calcium-48 mote , has an nuclear number of 118 and is the thick ingredient in the periodic table . Elements towards the higher end of the table run to be unstable , radioactive , and have incredibly short half - lives .
Elements beyond the occasional mesa have been sit , with physicist predicting their property . The Arizona team did the same using the relativistic Thomas - Fermi role model of the particle , attempting to forecast the mass denseness of elements 110 ezed and gamey .
Looking at element still within the periodic table , they could not recover element with high-pitched enough pot denseness to explain what has been observed of asteroid 33 Polyhymnia , even if they were stable enough to be considered a prospect .
" However , chemical element in the other theoretical island of nuclear stability near Z = 164 , which we portend to populate flock compactness value between 36.0 and 68.4 gravitational constant / cm3 , are fair candidates , " the squad wrote . " If some important part of the asteroid were made of these superheavy alloy , it is plausible that the higher masses density could be near the experimentally measured value . "
" Our results on mass density allow us to hypothesize that if superheavy element are sufficiently stable , they could exist in the inwardness of dense asteroid like 33 Polyhymnia , " the squad append in the paper .
While preliminary , it is nevertheless exciting to anyone from masses with a vague interest in physics to tech bros with plans for space mining .
“ All super - heavy component - those that are highly unstable as well as those that are simply unobserved - have been lumped together as ‘ unobtainium ’ ” , Jan Rafelski , an writer on the paper , added in apress release . “ The melodic theme that some of these might be static enough to be obtained from within our Solar System is an exciting one . ”
The study is published inThe European Physical Journal Plus .
