Scientists have just created the world's lightest form of magnesium — a never-before-seen isotope with just six neutrons in its atomic nuclei.

Oxygen-28 is not the only isotope where 20 neutrons no longer seem to be magic. In a phenomenon known as the island of inversion, isotopes of neon, sodium, and magnesium with 20 neutrons also show ...

Magnesium-40, which has 12 protons and 28 neutrons, has been sought unsuccessfully since 1997, and researchers had begun to believe that it was beyond the bounds of stability.

That's bigger than the previous heaviest magnesium isotope found, which had 26 neutrons. There doesn't seem to be a version of magnesium with 27 neutrons.

Unstable magnesium-40 has a nucleus packed with many more neutrons (blue) than the more common, stable magnesium-24, although both have the same number of protons (red).

Just over a decade ago scientists pushed magnesium atoms to new limits, jamming extra neutrons into their nuclei toward -- and possibly reaching -- the maximum limit for this element.

Specifically, isotopes of the elements neon, sodium, and magnesium with 20 neutrons do not remain stable. This is so unusual, however, that scientists have called these isotopes part of the ...

Just over a decade ago scientists pushed magnesium atoms to new limits, jamming extra neutrons into their nuclei toward - and possibly reaching - the maximum limit for this element. Now, an ...

Researchers at Michigan State University's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, have created three never-before-observed isotopes of magnesium and aluminum. The results not only stake ...

Researchers used neutrons to examine the origins of unusual magnetic behavior in a rare earth-based metal oxide, ytterbium-magnesium-gallium-tetraoxide (YbMgGaO4). The material, discovered in 2015 ...

Hoping to test the limits of how many extra neutrons will bind to an atomic nucleus, researchers were trying to create magnesium-40, a heavyweight element with 18 more neutrons than the most ...

Oxygen-28 is not the only isotope where 20 neutrons no longer seem to be magic. In a phenomenon known as the island of inversion, isotopes of neon, sodium, and magnesium with 20 neutrons also show ...