How Much

[foodchain]

I don’t if I should have posted this here of in a physics one so I will try here first. Going from the periodic table it seems as if you can have more and more in regards to a nucleus and the surrounding shells. Is there a limit to this? Could you have an atom or element with say 2000 protons, or 2500 electrons? It seems going back or getting smaller there is a limit with hydrogen maybe? I just don’t know the upper bounds of it anyone has tried to find out actually. I cant really find anything about this on the net.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The larger the atom, the less stable it becomes, and the more likely it is to break apart. You could have an atom with 2000 protons, but it would last only a millisecond or two (if you can figure out how to put the protons together in the first place).

[insane_alien]

eventually, you would get to a point where the electrons will fall into the nucleus.

 

although, the nucleus will decay long before that. the halflives will be on the order of femtoseconds.

[foodchain]

Well, the fact aside that no known environment could produce such, it could exist? I find this weird to think because eventually the atom would become more visible at some point would it not?

 

Being that such does not occur to my knowing even in say a star of some type makes me think its impossible on any reality driven level of practicality, just overall if its totally impossible is what I am wondering. I mean going from the periodic table and simply when reading electron configurations you can see and they of course typically label what this element is most related to, or like. So when where is the limit or roof to it all. I think making massive elements would maybe allow for different degrees of research possibly.

[Rasori]

It is theoretically possible to create an element with any number of protons. However, even the top-level elements now (110-118 or so, depending on what table you look at) don't last long enough for us to observe them--we can only observe (I believe) radioactive traces left by them as they collapse.

[insane_alien]

well, technically the biggest nuclei are neutron stars. though they have an atomic number of zero.