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isotope
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isotope

One of two or more atoms that have the same atomic number (same number of protons), but which contain a different number of neutrons, thus differing in their relative atomic mass. They may be stable or radioactive (as a radioisotope), naturally occurring, or synthesized. For example, hydrogen has the isotopes 2H (deuterium) and 3H (tritium). The term was coined by English chemist Frederick Soddy, a pioneer researcher in atomic disintegration.

Elements at the lower end of the periodic table have atoms with roughly the same number of protons as neutrons. These elements are called stable isotopes. The stable isotopes of oxygen include 16O, 17O, and 18O; those of carbon include 12C and 14C. Elements with high atomic mass numbers have many more neutrons than protons and are therefore less stable. It is these isotopes that are more prone to radioactive decay. Examples are 238U (uranium-238) and 60Co (cobalt-60).


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Instead, Stardust investigator Don Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues found that the isotopic composition of nearly every grain that they analyzed matched that of the inner solar system, demonstrating that the rocky material in Wild 2 indeed originated in the solar system.
Because the concentration measurements indicated that this contamination was not naturally derived, we analyzed other materials for lead concentrations and lead isotopic composition to determine possible sources of the increase in lead in cocoa products.
This is the challenge addressed by the contributors to an edited volume in the Geological Society Special Publication series entitled Geochronology: Linking the isotopic record with petrology and textures.
 
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