Elements are defined by the number of protons they have. Hydrogen has 1 proton, helium has 2, lithium has 3, and so on. Everything up to 94 protons, Plutonium, is known to occur naturally on Earth (some in only very trace amounts, but all are known one way or another), there are no gaps to fill in.
We can and have synthesized elements with 95+ protons in a lab, but these artificially created elements decay almost immediately. The highest element created this way is Oganesson, atomic number 118. Five whole atoms were created, and decayed in 0.7ms. Basically, it’s something that can only briefly be forced in a lab. It’s possible these elements may also occur within stars undergoing fusion, but nowhere else.
The table can be extended indefinitely, and we have theoretical models of what the properties of hypothetical elements will be, but the further out we go the less stable these elements will be, decaying faster and faster. So it’s not like these are natural elements waiting to be discovered that we missed, we know everything that could be stable in nature.
Elements are defined by the number of protons they have. Hydrogen has 1 proton, helium has 2, lithium has 3, and so on. Everything up to 94 protons, Plutonium, is known to occur naturally on Earth (some in only very trace amounts, but all are known one way or another), there are no gaps to fill in.
We can and have synthesized elements with 95+ protons in a lab, but these artificially created elements decay almost immediately. The highest element created this way is Oganesson, atomic number 118. Five whole atoms were created, and decayed in 0.7ms. Basically, it’s something that can only briefly be forced in a lab. It’s possible these elements may also occur within stars undergoing fusion, but nowhere else.
The table can be extended indefinitely, and we have theoretical models of what the properties of hypothetical elements will be, but the further out we go the less stable these elements will be, decaying faster and faster. So it’s not like these are natural elements waiting to be discovered that we missed, we know everything that could be stable in nature.
There might be elements we don’t know about with a higher proton number around a Island of Stability https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability