In the European Physical Journal Plus, Rafelski and two colleagues mathematically demonstrated that the existence of CUDOs (compact ultra dense objects) do not have dark matter, but are filled with unknown classes of chemical elements beyond the periodic table that are much denser than osmium.
The mainstream view is that the density calculations for all high density asteroids were measurement errors. 33 Polyhymnia was measured in 2012 in a study with many other asteroids. There is non-peer reviewed 2023 analysis of mass and density that indicates 12.35 grams per cc density for 33 Polyhymnia. There is the need for more and better telescope observations and measurements.
Here is the full paper in Arxiv.
One such rock is 33 Polyhymnia, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists have long been puzzled by its density, as the 34-mile-wide (55 kilometers) object does not have the mass needed to squeeze minerals into ultradense forms.
Elements in the island of nuclear stability around atomic number 164 will populate a mass density range of 36.0–68.4 grams per cubic centimeter. Osmium has a density of 22.6 grams per cubic centimeter.
The highest element that is not made via nuclear process or particle accelerators Uranium with atomic number 92. Unstable elements have been made up to atomic number 118.
Some previously synthesized elements have yielded tremendous benefits for people. One example, element 95 – Americium – discovered in 1944, is used in smoke detectors and in medical and industrial radiography.
There could be potential uses of future superheavy elements. We have not been able to make them but if they exist in space in asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter then we will not have to make it. We can advance science by going out and finding them.
The purpose of the 2023 study was to determine whether CUDOs with extreme mass density could be achieved without the need for the usually invoked strange or dark matter. They have done this while exploring two different nuclear systems using the relativistic Thomas-Fermi model. From the exploration of both standard nuclei and alpha matter, it is clear that both types of nuclear matter could explain the density seen in CUDOs such as asteroid-33 Polyhymnia.
Asteroid-33 Polyhymnia has density in the range of 65 to 85 grams per cubic centimeter. 33 Polyhymnia has a mass of about 750 trillion tons.
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It is completely possible that all elements at masses greater than ~300 will not be atoms anymore, but new form of quark matter (not strange quark matter, but up-down quark matter), see: https://phys.org/news/2018-06-periodic-table.html (“New form of matter may lie just beyond the periodic table”)
This quark matter (udQM) will be completely stable (more stable than standard nuclear matter) and will form so called “Continent of stability”, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent_of_stability
So if this measurement is not a fluke (and that is a big if), maybe the asteroid could contain this new form of quark matter.
If (failing) memory serves, the electric field near a nucleus of ~132-137 protons is strong enough to create an electron-positron pair essentially instantly. Unless some other effect (dark matter, dark energy, ?) cancels that, there is no chance on an element in that proton count range or above.
Don’t, don’t, believe the hype! I would be OK with a flyby to measure its gravity.
Super-super heavy stable elements from a theorised zone of stability could only really be made from a supernova. Our own Earth and Sun are third generation products, which means previous supernovas have occurred to upcycle hydrogen into heavier elements. But Uranium is as far as it gets in a third generation cycle(IIRC). If there is an asteroid made of higher elements still, its going to be from out of own solar system and come from a very different history.
We can’t say with any degree of certainty that the sun is the sole byproduct of exactly 3 generations of stars. While I absolutely advocate for further study into the density of this asteroid, there are a number of factors and scenarios that could be at play.
Scenario 1: Your hypothesis is 100% correct and the sun and our solar system are the byproduct of only 3 generations of stars so the heavier mass elements could not have come from the cloud/amalgam of gas and rock that created our solar system. But in that scenario, we could have passed through a neighboring solar system at some point in our procession through the milky way and captured this ultra dense asteroid or even planetoid that was well on its way to becoming a planet’s core, from said neighbor.
Scenario 2: The sun’s generation is a complex and unclear thing, as different generations of stars exist simultaneously in the universe. So while the main mass of the sun may have come from a single supernovae that was a 2nd generation star, a sprinkling of heavier elements may have been mixed in from neighboring supernovae of 4th or even 5th generation stars. This scenario is somewhat backed up by our observations of the sun’s spectra and the unusually high concentration of metals in the sun. So it’s possible as the protoplanetary disc around the sun was forming, this clump of ultra dense elements coalesced into this sprinkling of asteroids.
Ultimately, no one can say without further observation and study. But one thing is certain, the universe and the stars are far too complex to boil things down to simple yes or no based on the supposed generation of Sol.
Go get a piece of it and stop relying on telescopes and people living off govt. science grants.
Holy Naquadah, Batman!
From Wikipedia, it appears there is nothing to see here:
Mass and density
In 2012, a study by Benoît Carry estimated a mass of (6.20±0.74)×1018 kg for Polyhymnia based on its gravitational influence on other Solar System bodies.[5] However, given Polyhymnia’s diameter of 54 km (34 mi), this mass implies an extremely high density of 75.28±9.71 g/cm3. Such a high density is unrealistic, so this mass and density estimate of Polyhymnia was considered unreliable by Carry.[5] Several other asteroids with diameters similar to Polyhymnia were also measured to have extremely high densities in Carry’s study, and were rejected for being unrealistic.[5] Because of Polyhymnia’s small size, its gravitational influence on other bodies is extremely difficult to detect and may lead to highly inaccurate mass and density estimates.[5] For example, the 68 km (42 mi)-diameter asteroid 675 Ludmilla was originally measured to have a density of 73.99±15.05 g/cm3 in Carry’s study,[5] but improved orbit calculations in 2019 showed that it had a much lower density of 3.99±1.94 g/cm3.[14]
No other peer-reviewed study has attempted to determine a mass and density for Polyhymnia since Carry’s study,[15] though in 2023, researcher Fan Li performed a preliminary analysis of Polyhymnia’s close approaches with other asteroids and determined a lower mass of (1.03±0.40)×1018 kg.[16] Depending on the diameter used for Polyhymnia, this mass estimate suggests a density of 7.5±3.6 g/cm3 or 12.4 g/cm3, for an occultation-derived diameter of 64 ± 6 km (39.8 ± 3.7 mi) and infrared-derived diameter of 54 km (34 mi), respectively.[16][17]
“We checked three asteroids and they are all unusually dense!”
More like your instruments are unusually imprecise.
Yes. Not to mention the fact that if this stuff was abundant and stable enough to fill asteroids we would have detected it on earth too…
Yes I found this Wiki also and it’s disappointing that this astronomy error is getting such extravagant “theorizing” on YouTube and NBF, without mention of the simple error possibility.
I always read that those super heavy elements have only less than one second half live and can’t really exist …
That is true frothy elements near the end of the periodic table. However there is theorized island of stability around element 160. If true there may be supper heavy elements that are as stable as uranium and yet not on the periodic table. At present the heaviest element we have reenable to make is element 103. The heaviest isotope of this element 266 has a half life of 11 hours (according to wikipedia). The difficulty in making these elements is that several heavy elements have to fuse together at about the same time.
The heavieast we’ve made is 118, in 2002.
You should point out that this is all extremely speculative. Chances are that those superheavy elements decay very quickly and the asteroid mass estimates are in error.
I’d actually consider a quark nugget to be a more likely explanation than super-heavy elements, and I don’t think quark nuggets are actually all that likely.
Synthesis of super-heavy elements does not apparently happen in supernova, at least not to any appreciable extent, even assuming there are any reasonably stable ones. Or else you’d find them on Earth, if only at extremely low concentrations.
The only circumstances I could see them being created is perhaps in the crust of neutron stars, and then how would they escape?
No, a miscalculation of mass seems enormously more likely. It’s always important to ask, “If this were true, what else would we see?”, and in this case, I believe there’s no scenario where you get superheavy elements in an asteroid, and not find them on Earth at at least trace levels.
The crust of neurtron stars was the hypothesis put forward. It’d just have to pass through the Roche lobe of something heavier than itself, I’d have thought. If you invoke the passing of this object through a binary or ternary system, it could easily have its matter flung across the galaxy eventually.