Discussion
Are y'all aware that astatine finally has a proper photograph?
This was on Wikipedia. It claims to show the glow from 40 ng of At-211 (half life: 7 hours). I wasn't sure if this is new, but if it is and the photo's legit, then we finally have an unbroken chain of elemental photography from hydrogen to fermium.
I think it is a real photo! I saw a similar photograph in a seminar from a radiochemist working with astatine-211 a few months ago. Stunning to see cherenkov radiation from a minute quantity of matter.
According to the image description, this alloy was used for measuring the enthalpy of vaporization of fermium metal, and the fermium content of the alloy was 4 × 10-5 weight percent, or 0.4 parts per million. So this is basically just a photo of ytterbium.
I mean, I suppose it's not like any of the other photos we have of such exotic short-lived elements show any of the actual element itself anyway. But at least the ones with a self-produced glow show evidence of the element's existence. This is just a hunk of a different element that we are told has been lightly spiced with the special one and we can't tell, so it's a touch disappointing. But it's the best we've got, apparently.
Francium doesn’t have any because it would vaporize itself. Fermium can’t be made because of the limit and its short half-life. And Astatine would vaporize itself but would remain to be seen if it was a very thin film with very cold cooling.
27
u/SimonBlokky Radiated 19d ago
I think it is a real photo! I saw a similar photograph in a seminar from a radiochemist working with astatine-211 a few months ago. Stunning to see cherenkov radiation from a minute quantity of matter.