This is a list of

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

nuclide A nuclide (or nucleide, from nucleus, also known as nuclear species) is a class of atoms characterized by their number of protons, ''Z'', their number of neutrons, ''N'', and their nuclear energy state. The word ''nuclide'' was coined by Truman ...

s (sometimes also called

isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...

s), ordered by

half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10⁻¹⁹ and 10⁻¹⁰ seconds.

10⁻²⁴ seconds (yoctoseconds)

23 yoctoseconds is the time needed to traverse a 7

femtometre The magnitudes_.html" ;"title="Magnitude_(mathematics).html" ;"title="atom.html" ;"title="helium helium_atom_and_perspective_Magnitude_(mathematics)">magnitudes_">Magnitude_(mathematics).html"_;"title="atom.html"_;"title="helium_atom">helium_at ...

distance at the speed of light, around the diameter of a large

atomic nucleus The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron i ...

10⁻²¹ seconds (zeptoseconds)

10⁻¹⁸ seconds (attoseconds)

10⁻¹⁵ seconds (femtoseconds)

10⁻¹² seconds (picoseconds)

10⁻⁹ seconds (nanoseconds)

10⁻⁶ seconds (microseconds)

10⁻³ seconds (milliseconds)

10⁰ seconds

10³ seconds (kiloseconds)

10⁶ seconds (megaseconds)

10⁹ seconds (gigaseconds)

10¹² seconds (teraseconds)

10¹⁵ seconds (petaseconds)

10¹⁸ seconds (exaseconds)

10²¹ seconds (zettaseconds)

10²⁴ seconds (yottaseconds)

10²⁷ seconds (ronnaseconds)

10³⁰ seconds (quettaseconds)

The half-life of tellurium-128 is over 160

trillion ''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the meaning in both American and British English. * 1,000,000,000,0 ...

times greater than the

age of the universe In physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang. Astronomers have derived two different measurements of the age of the universe: a measurement based on direct observations of an early state of the universe, ...

(which is seconds).

Notes

{{Reflist

External links

Radioactive isotope table
"lists ALL radioactive nuclei with a half-life greater than 1000 years", incorporated in the list above.
The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear physics properties
F.G. Kondev et al. 2021 Chinese Phys. C 45 030001. The PDF of this article lists the half-lives of all known radioactives nuclides. *List

Radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

Radioactivity Tables of nuclides

10−24 seconds (yoctoseconds)

10−21 seconds (zeptoseconds)

10−18 seconds (attoseconds)

10−15 seconds (femtoseconds)

10−12 seconds (picoseconds)

10−9 seconds (nanoseconds)

10−6 seconds (microseconds)

10−3 seconds (milliseconds)

100 seconds

103 seconds (kiloseconds)

106 seconds (megaseconds)

109 seconds (gigaseconds)

1012 seconds (teraseconds)

1015 seconds (petaseconds)

1018 seconds (exaseconds)

1021 seconds (zettaseconds)

1024 seconds (yottaseconds)

1027 seconds (ronnaseconds)

1030 seconds (quettaseconds)

See also