Matter in our universe?

we don't. there are more elements on other planets im sure but they havent been discovered yet. anything is possible remember that.

I'm going to start off my disregarding Dark Energy and Dark Matter for this question. Our understanding of these is eerily limited, and these are *so far* just terms used to explain certain discrepencies based on observable matter's behavior via gravity, and inconsistencies in cosmological physics.

I'm not sure if there is a limiting atomic number for an element (asking this in the chemistry category *might* get you better answers) but for the most part (as per my limited understanding of the "small" universe) pretty much all of the "new elements" discovered... or rather "created" are done so in labratories.

Could those labratory conditions exist naturally somewhere in the universe? I'm not sure, seems like a legitimate question though.

Basically, elements are formed from existing elemnts. It happens continuously inside of stars. They literally "fuse" atoms together, creating "heavier" elemnts, up until iron. Elements heavier than iron cannot be created through fusion. But when a massive star has run out of "fuel" and can no longer fuse anything... it's life ends in a supernova, which creates the elemtns heavier than iron.

This process has been going on for about 13.7 billion years.

My suspicion is that, elements heavier than anything on the periodic table, should they exist naturally, are too unstable to exist for any length of time that isn't completely negligible...

But don't take me at my word, cause most of my answer (aside from what happens inside of stars) is very speculative based on only a high school level understanding of chemistry.

You're absolutely correct. Our understanding of everything is very limited since we can only see a very small section of our universe. Chemistry and physics generally apply only to things in our immediate vicinity, that is, things that we can readily observe. Atoms can exist with as many protons and neutrons as you want, that is, if you have enough energy to cram it all together and no regard for the amount of time it will actually last.

A lot of those atoms towards the bottom of the table actually do not exist in nature. Einsteinium, just for an example, only existed for an extremely tiny fraction of a second in a laboratory, but still long enough to make it on to the table.

Science is really all theoretical. We can't really have a complete understanding of everything (i.e. What about outside the known universe?). It's useful here on Earth though, as you can obviously imagine :)

All I can say is never get caught in a state of Dogma about anything. Nothing is for certain. You will tend to see a lot of contradicting information throughout your learning of chemistry. All I can say is, good luck! lol

Conceivably I don't think there is a limit to how many protons you can jam inside a nucleus. However, nature is only able to make things as heavy as uranium. Elements heavier than that (like neptunium, plutonium, americium, etc.) have been artificially made by humans in expensive labs. Many of the very very heavy elements (like the ones labeled "Uun" or something on your periodic table) are very unstable and decay into lighter elements within a fraction of a second.

Heavier and heavier elements are made inside stars as they go through their life cycle. They start by smashing hydrogen together to make helium. Then helium to make carbon, and carbon to make oxygen, and so on until iron. Elements heavier than iron (cobalt, platinum, zinc, arsenic, etc.) are made by supernova explosions. This is because the nuclear reactions that make elements lighter than iron give off energy (this is what powers the stars), while nuclear reactions that from heavier elements take energy. (see nucleosynthesis)

Most importantly, we know that visible matter in the universe is made of the same elements because of an observation technique called spectroscopy. Each element and molecule has its own unique "barcode" of light. When you heat it enough to glow, it gives off specific colors. Thus astronomers know that other stars and nebulae and galaxies all have the same elements in them that we see on Earth, because we see these same barcodes when we observe their light.

There is actually a good amount of evidence for dark matter. We know it's there. We just don't know what it is. Dark energy is more iffy though.

Well, I have to agree with you on this.

You're right because there is no way for us to know of every type of Matter in our Universe, only because we've explored such a small fraction of it! Elements we don't know of could have existed earlier towards the Big Bang, seeing as how things were more intense back then, or maybe they will exist in the future, as everything slowly expands, cooling down.

We can only imagine how large our Universe is, but we can't possibly imagine what we may find if we were to explore every inch of what we know exists. There is no way that we know of to explore the entire Universe, and that rises another question... "What if there was another big bang somewhere else?". Well, to be honest, if it takes a billion more years, let it, but Evenetually we'll find out whether there was another Big Bang, as all the matter expands, no matter where it is, it will interfere with the matter from our Big Bang.

But that arises yet another question... "Is the matter in the New big bang going to be the same as it is in this one?"

Well, that's unpredictable, but our Universe works in such patterns that many things are alike. Think about how many times the same thing has happend, for example:

Galaxies form around a black hole (How many times has that happend? An Unimaginatable number of times).

Another example: Almost every single planet we have seen is Spherical. (How many times has that happend? Well, it's probably happend to every single planet out there).

This just proves that our Universe works in patterns,

and these patterns can always be repeated.

If another big bang was to happen, it would most likely react the same way at that moment, and several billions years later.

It's confusing to think about it, but even when we find every single Element in the universe, we will wonder... "What if there's more?". Well, we might've already found every single Element in the Universe, due to it's repetition... But that doesn't mean the chances of finding something new are low.

In fact, they are so high in comparison as to how much we've seen... And how much there really is.

So yes, it's very possible to find new Elements, and we might not even find out whether elements exist past 200 protons, because we're not taking care of ourselves, and that will cause Chaos in the Human Race.

It would be an Ironic Shame to see the only life in the Universe that we are aware of be perished...

And even worse for an Atheist like me to think about.

Well, I hope this helped.

Just a reminder... Those are just the Basics!

Continue your study.

past 120 is hard-pressed, as anything beyond that decays too fast and the enrgy needed would be too great even in the hottest stars or the big bang. over 200 is just impossible as you wont have any electron shells to hold 200 electrons. as well the protons would break apart before forming. and we are really in the centre of the universe so the"corner of the universe" would be colder and less likely to create other elements

There is a distinct possibility that other elements exist elsewhere in our Universe. I would suggest that there may well be many more heavier elements that exist within massive stars or inside large black holes where conditions may exist for elements that we do not see here on Earth.

No one ever said they don't exist it is just that they would decay in a matter of zeptoseconds or something similar. And yes there is no proof for all of the types of matter.