Proginoskes Wrote:I'm actually surprised the number is that small: I would've thought that the boundary where a collection of nucleons ceased to be an atomic nucleus and became instead a neutron star would be much higher.Gravity is a weak force compared to electromagnetism. You need HUGES amounts of matter to overcome it and produce neutronium... stellar amount of matter to be exact.
The problem with larger nuclei is that they all seem to be very instable and decay into smaller nuclei very quickly. The "island of stability" is the idea that there might be heavier elements that are stable for a long time, but we have not found any up to today.