Production of transuranic elements in Nature

[japam]

Hello all
Just a simple question that intrigue me recently. Some body could explain about how scientists exactly know that transuranium elements cannot be produced naturally in the Universe?

JPAM

 

[blechman]

I'm not sure this is right, but I THINK that the reason simply is that it decays too quickly. Plutonium IS created in the natural universe (in large supernovae, etc), but it never goes anywhere before it decays - you wouldn't find it in a planet crust, for example.

 

[vanesch]

Hello all
Just a simple question that intrigue me recently. Some body could explain about how scientists exactly know that transuranium elements cannot be produced naturally in the Universe?

They most probably ARE produced in the universe. We don't find them anymore here on Earth simply because if ever they were here, they would have decayed (half life too short). For instance, Technetium has the same problem, although it is not a transuranium element.

 

[malawi_glenn]

I do an nuclear-astrophysics course now, and yes elements heavier than U is produced in the r-process. But as the others has said, thay have very short half life and another factor is spontatneous fission gets more probable as you go up in A.

 

[Riogho]

Just because something is 'synthetic' does not necessarily mean it cannot be found in the universe. We created technitium before we discovered it. And we have discovered it, but it is still considered a synthetic element.