Plutonium-244: Confirmation as an Extinct Radioactivity

The mass spectrum of xenon from spontaneous fission in a laboratory sample of plutonium-244 is precisely what meteoriticists predicted it would be; this discovery completes a web of proof that this nuclide is a bona fide extinct radioactivity of galactic origin, that r-process nucleosynthesis was on...

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Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 172; no. 3985; pp. 837 - 840
Main Authors Alexander, E. C., Lewis, R. S., Reynolds, J. H., Michel, M. C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 21.05.1971
Subjects
Astronomical extinction
Isotopes
Meteorites
Nucleosynthesis
Nuclides
Plutonium
R process
Radioactive decay
Solar systems
Xenon
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Summary:The mass spectrum of xenon from spontaneous fission in a laboratory sample of plutonium-244 is precisely what meteoriticists predicted it would be; this discovery completes a web of proof that this nuclide is a bona fide extinct radioactivity of galactic origin, that r-process nucleosynthesis was ongoing in the galaxy at the time of the birth of the sun, and that the early meteoritic abundances of plutonium-244, heretofore tentative, can be utilized with confidence in models for the chronology of galactic nucleosynthesis. The search for an explanation for anomalous fission-like xenon in carbonaceous chondrites can now be narrowed.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.172.3985.837