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IS THERE AN ELEMENT LIGHTER THAN HYDROGEN?

Scientists have been speculating on an even lighter element than Hydrogen.  Will this revolutionize chemistry?

  • How can this be?  Hydrogen has just one proton and one electron.
  • Well, Muonium also has an electron....BUT NO PROTON.  There is an antimuon inside, which is lighter than a proton.
  • The reason why you don't see Muonium in the Table of Elements is that it is not an element, for it is energetically impossible for this antimuon to transform into a proton.
  • Thus the answer to the title above is NO.
  • Might also mention Positronium, to be defined next.
Some background.
  • Back to hydrogen, its simplest isotope deuterium has one electron, one proton and one neutron, while tritium has one electron, one proton and two neutrons.  
  • Sorry to keep bringing up these terms, but hydrogen is also known as protium
  • There are 90 naturally-occurring elements on Earth, plus 18 or so other artificial ones.
  • Muonium is artificial.
    • Has one electron.  No proton or neutron.
    • The nucleus is an antimuon, which has a life of only 2.2 microseconds.  
      • Can be produced when cosmic rays collide with hydrogen, leading to a series of preliminary decays to the formation of a muon-antimuon pair.
      • Or, by colliding a positron (an antimatter positively charged version of an electron) with an electron.
      • Symbol:  μ+
    • Muonium was discovered in 1960 by Vernon W. Hughes...so is nothing new.
    • Has chemical symbol Mu.
    • Weighs 200 times the mass of an electron, but 1/9 the rest mass of a proton.
    • A proton is 1836 times heavier than an electron.
  • To confuse you, there is another substance, called True Muonium, which is a bound state of a muon and an antimuon ((μ+μ− ), but has not yet to be observed experimentally.
  • Another artificial atom is the Positronium, consisting of an antimatter positive electron, or positron, orbited by a normal negative electron.  In a tiny fraction of a second, the positron and electron annihilate one another, yielding high-energy gamma-ray photons.  However, before its destruction, a positronium can combine with ordinary atoms to form a hydride or other simple compounds.
  • Scientists are also studying something called muonium helium.  Or is it muonic helium?  I'm getting confused.

Okay, one more graphic, leaving you no doubt still confused.  If nothing else, don't you feel sorry for those physicists who work in this area of science?

So what is the possible real world value to any of the above?  Best I can determine is that these discoveries are crucial for determining everything else, whatever that might be.  Any practical value?  Sure...maybe.  Concept potentially useful in some future instruments.  Perhaps, one of these light elements will someday be stabilized.  For example, a safer hydrogen for use as fuel for ultra jetliners or zeppelin-like craft.

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