system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do larger elements (e.g Moscovium) have such short lifespans - Can they not remain stable? Why do they last incredibly short periods of time?

Most of my question is explained in the title, but why do superheavy elements last for so short - do they not have a stable form in which we can observe them?

Edit: Thanks to everyone who comments; your input is much appreciated!
gpt
A contributing factor is that we probably haven't synthesised the most stable isotopes of many superheavy elements. The higher the atomic number, the greater the neutron/proton ratio required for stability, and since superheavy elements are synthesised by fusing two lighter ones together it's hard to get enough neutrons.

For example the first isotope of Copernicium (element 112) synthesised, in 1996, was Cn-277 with a half-life of under a millisecond. A few years later Cn-285 was synthesised and that has a half-life of about 30 seconds. Still very short in human terms, but many thousands of times more stable than the first isotope discovered.

It's likely the same will apply for the newest elements discovered, and indeed unconfirmed results indicate this. Even in the predicted "island of stability" half-lifes are still likely to be minutes at best though.