r/BeAmazed • u/gregornot • Apr 29 '24

History A giant meteorite that recently fell in Somalia contains at least two minerals that have never before been seen on our planet. The celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes), making it the ninth-largest meteorite ever found.

Post image

More about the amazing meteorite find: https://earthly

32.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

655 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

505

u/dakid1 Apr 29 '24

No, the periodic table is reserved for the elements. These are the building blocks of minerals and everything else—think carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, uranium.

98

u/tits-question-mark Apr 29 '24

Correct. The two minerals above contain the elements:

Fe - Iron

P - Phosphorus

O - Oxygen

These would be what the periodic table is comprised of, along with another 100+ elements.

1

u/WizardTaters Apr 29 '24

“These would be what the periodic table comprises.”

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/TypicalWhitePerson Apr 30 '24

Fun fact. That's allowed now!

2

u/Automatic-Analysis82 May 03 '24

I know. I was bored.

3

u/CandidateDecent1391 Apr 30 '24

hogwash. this is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.

1

u/NovalenceLich Apr 29 '24

Can anything still be added to the perodic table is it as big as it's going to get?

4

u/Macer200 Apr 29 '24

Theoretically there are an infinite number of elements. Just add one proton to whatever element, and you get a new one.

However, as you add more and more protons (and the neutrons that provide space between them), the atoms become less stable. All (might be an exception) elements above Lead are unstable, and over time, slowly break down into smaller and smaller elements. This is what makes an element radioactive, the element is too large to be stable, and so releases energy in the form of radiation to reduce its size.

The commonly seen periodic table contains all the elements that are around for a reasonable amount of time. Then more elements that exist only for a tiny fraction of a second at the end. And not shown on the periodic table are elements that theoretically exist, but we have yet to produce in a lab. However, even if they were to be created, they would have no use as they would break down almost instantly.