Things have moved quickly since the confirmation of superheavy element 117 – literally. The element is so unstable that it was confirmed by observing the daughter isotopes into which it quickly decayed. Once the decay chain reached element lawrencium 266 (a never before seen isotope), however, the outlook improved: With 105 protons, 163 neutrons and a half life of 11 hours, it may be the most stable element of its size to date.

“Perhaps we are at the shore of the island of stability,” says Christoph Düllmann, who led the experiments by the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. Düllmann says that though element 117’s existence may have been theorized by a Russian team in 2010, he’s working with an entirely different team using altogether different equipment.

Of course, scientists aren’t yet sure where this so-called “island” (where superheavy isotopes last for inordinately long periods) exists, or if it even exists at all. Extrapolation exercises suggest that the next benchmark for stability could be 108, 110 or 114 protons, with 184 neutrons. The neutron number, at least in theory, appears to be the lynchpin.

“All existing data for elements 116, 117 and 118 do confirm that lifetimes increase as one goes closer to the neutron number 184,” says theorist Witold Nazarewicz of Oak Ridge, who was not involved in the study. “This is encouraging.”

If the island does indeed exist, scientists are prepared to find some very weird atom configurations, including a “bubble” shape with a hole in the center. As for the half lives of elements that might reside in the stability zone, there’s theoretically no limit. They may even be stable enough to exist in nature, albeit in quantities so small they haven’t yet been discovered or observed. Given their theoretical density, it’s possible that it would take something as powerful as the merging of neutron stars to produce them naturally.

“This is of paramount importance as even longer-lived isotopes are predicted to exist in a region of enhanced nuclear stability,” said Düllmann.