The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun its first-ever collisions of oxygen ions, in the latest attempt to understand the ...

A well-established example of this is oxygen-16, the most abundant type of oxygen on Earth. Eight is a magic number for protons and 20 for neutrons, so oxygen-28 was expected to be one of these ...

Oxygen-28, with 8 protons and 20 neutrons, has long been predicted to be doubly magic, too. But physicists have not been able to detect it before. Ghost hunters.

An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter ...

Oxygen-28, with 8 protons and 20 neutrons, has long been predicted to be doubly magic, too. But physicists have not been able to detect it before. Ghost hunters.

Oxygen-28, with its 8 protons and 20 neutrons, belongs to this super-category and should, in theory, have enhanced stability. But another equally unforgiving rule of nuclear physics works in the ...

Oxygen-28, doubly magic with its 20 neutrons and eight protons, was expected to be stable too. Finding the isotope took a combination of brute force and experimental elegance.

Scientists in Japan have become the first to observe the super-heavy oxygen isotopes oxygen-27 (27 O) and oxygen-28 (28 O). The latter packs a whopping 20 neutrons into its nucleus alongside its eight ...

If both protons and neutrons fully fill an atom’s shells, then it is called doubly magic. The oxygen that sustains life on Earth has this property, which is what allows it to be so abundant.

With eight protons and eight neutrons, oxygen-16 has an extremely stable nucleus. A nearby star produced the oxygen we find on Earth through nuclear reactions in its core sometime before the solar ...

The number of protons is what defines the element. Oxygen, for example, has eight protons. However, the number of neutrons in an atom can vary, leading to different forms of elements, called ...

The number of protons is what defines the element. Oxygen, for example, has eight protons. However, the number of neutrons in an atom can vary, leading to different forms of elements, called ...