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🔆Nitrogen-9 nucleu

✅Scientists discovered hints of the new isotope, called nitrogen-9, by smashing beams of oxygen isotopes into beryllium atoms in the U.S. National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.


✅It is characterised by seven protons and two neutrons – which is an unusually high proton-to-neutron ratio.
✅This disparity has a critical effect on the isotope’s stability, influencing its decay processes as well as overall behaviour.
For one, the high proton content places nitrogen-9 atoms beyond the conventional stability thresholds.
✅Most nitrogen comes as the isotope nitrogen-14, with seven protons and seven neutrons. But physicists say they have glimpsed a far more elusive variant with just two neutrons.
◾What are Isotopes?

✅These are atoms of a given element that vary only in the number of neutrons. This difference sets apart one isotope from another.
✅Many isotopes are also unstable, especially those whose atoms have too few neutrons for the number of protons.
✅Unstable isotopes are short-lived, and often decay by releasing some energy to achieve a more stable configuration.
◾What are nuclides?

✅It is an analogous table for atomic nuclei characterised by a unique combination of protons and neutrons.
✅A table or chart of nuclides is a two-dimensional graph of isotopes of the elements.
✅One axis shows the number of neutrons (N) and the other shows the number of protons (Z) in each atomic nucleus.
✅Each point on the graph denotes a nuclide.