From carbon to uranium, oxygen to iron, chemical elements are the building blocks of the world around us and the wider universe. Now, physicists are hoping to gain an unprecedented glimpse into their origins, with the opening of a new facility that will create thousands of peculiar and unstable versions of atoms never before recorded on Earth.<\/p>\n
By studying these versions, known as isotopes, they hope to gain new insights into the reactions that created the elements within exploding stars, as well as testing theories about the \u201cstrong force\u201d \u2013 one of the four fundamental forces in nature, which binds protons and neutrons together in an atom\u2019s nucleus. The facility could also yield new isotopes for medical use.<\/p>\n
Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. The number of protons dictates an atom\u2019s chemical behaviour and which element it is \u2013 eg carbon always has six protons, and gold 79 \u2013 whereas atoms of the same element containing different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes.<\/p>\n
Because many isotopes are unstable and decay quickly \u2013 sometimes within fractions of a second \u2013 scientists have only studied a small proportion of those thought to exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 285 isotopes of elements that exist on Earth, but we think that there are potentially 10,000 isotopes for the elements up to uranium,\u201d said Prof Bradley Sherrill, the scientific director of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University, which officially opened on 2 May. \u201cThe goal of FRIB is to provide as wide of an access to this vast landscape of other isotopes as technology allows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of these \u201crare isotopes\u201d may drive reactions crucial to the formation of elements, so by studying them physicists hope to gain a better understanding of the chemical history of the universe \u2013 including how we got here.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of elements are thought to have been created within exploding stars, but \u201cin many cases we don\u2019t know which stars created which elements, because these reactions involve unstable isotopes \u2013 things we couldn\u2019t readily get our hands on,\u201d said Prof Gavin Lotay, a nuclear physicist at the University of Surrey, who plans to use the new facility to investigate common explosions called X-ray bursts within neutron stars.<\/p>\n
Another goal is to understand atomic nuclei well enough to develop a comprehensive model of them, which could provide fresh insights into the role they play in the creation of energy for stars, or the reactions occurring within nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n
The facility could also yield medically useful isotopes. Already, doctors use radioactive isotopes in eg Pet scans and some types of radiotherapy, but the discovery of additional ones could help improve diagnostic imaging, or provide new ways of seeking out and destroying tumours.<\/p>\n
To generate these isotopes, FRIB will accelerate a beam of atomic nuclei to half the speed of light and send them shooting down a 450-metre pipe, before crashing them into a target that causes some of the atoms to fragment into smaller combinations of protons and neutrons. A series of magnets will then filter out the desired isotopes and direct them into experimental chambers for further study.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a millionth of a second, we can select a particular isotope and deliver it to an experiment where [scientists] may catch it and watch for its radioactive decay, or we may use it to induce another nuclear reaction and use those reaction products to tell us something about the structure of the isotope,\u201d Sherrill said.<\/p>\n
The first experiments will involve making the heaviest possible isotopes of fluorine, aluminium, magnesium and neon, and comparing their rates of radioactive decay with those predicted by existing models. \u201cThe surprise will be if our observations agree with what we expected,\u201d Sherrill said. \u201cMost likely they won\u2019t agree, and then we\u2019ll use that disagreement to refine our models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Approximately a month later, FRIB researchers plan to measure the radioactive decay of isotopes thought to exist within neutron stars \u2013 some of the densest objects in the universe, formed when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses \u2013 to better understand their behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally we have the tools to enable people to do research that they\u2019ve been waiting 30 years to do,\u201d said Sherrill. \u201cIt\u2019s like having a new, bigger telescope that can see further into the universe than ever before \u2013 only we\u2019ll be seeing further in the nuclear landscape than we\u2019ve ever been able to look before. Whenever you have a new tool like that, there\u2019s the potential for discovery.\u201d
\nsource:the guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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