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Plutonium-244 nucleus
Details
The plutonium-244 nucleus is the heavy atomic nucleus of a long-lived plutonium isotope, built from 94 protons and 150 neutrons. It was forged in rare neutron-rich explosions before the Solar System formed, and its 81.3-million-year half-life made it an important extinct radionuclide in early Solar System history.
The plutonium-244 nucleus is a very small object with an unexpectedly large historical reach. Built from 94 protons and 150 neutrons, it belongs to the family of very heavy nuclei that could not have formed in ordinary stellar burning. Its existence points instead to rare, violent environments rich in free neutrons, where the periodic table can be driven toward its heaviest members.
What makes plutonium-244 especially interesting is its timescale. With a long half-life by nuclear standards, it could survive long enough to become part of the material from which the early Solar System formed, and then decay away. That gives it a special status: not a common ingredient of the present-day Solar System, but a radioactive trace of extraordinary events that happened before the planets existed.
That is why the plutonium-244 nucleus matters. It shows that even a tiny nucleus can function like a fossil from cosmic prehistory. In this one heavy atomic core, nuclear physics, rare neutron-rich explosions, and the earliest history of the Solar System all meet.
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Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
Key facts
- Category
- Particles
- Object class
- Atomic nucleus
- Scale fact
- ~15 fmdiameter
- Composition
- 94 protons, 150 neutrons
Scale context
Where Plutonium-244 nucleus sits on the full axis
By size on the journey, Plutonium-244 nucleus sits between Neutron and Hydrogen atom. The band below uses nearby Particles objects for context.
Shared physical scale
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Together, these objects make the size change around Plutonium-244 nucleus easy to compare at a glance.
Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.
About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.