What is happening when Uranium splits? and where in our galaxy is it found?

and when and how did they first discover about this kind of thing?





was this always dreamed about by Alchemists, etc?





why and how so?





also, just out of interest how many atoms were needed to come up with an atom bomb?








how is Uranium different than Plutonium in its intensity when split? by ';fission'; and what is ';fission'; really?





please explain





thanks for your answers!What is happening when Uranium splits? and where in our galaxy is it found?
Uranium is found in the Earth and as with all elements heavier than hydrogen it is made in stars.


It was known as a material, but mostly as salts rather than the metal for a long time, but it's radioactivity was discovered by Antoine Bequerel in1896.


99% of the world's Uranium is mined in Canada, but many other countries also have Uranium mines.





Fission is simply splitting an atom. When an atom loses some of it's internal particles it loses the energy that bound them together.The energy is released as radiation.


Some radioactive elements emit streams of particles when they decay, as well as electromagnetic radiation in the form of x-rays and gamma rays.


Alpha rays and beta rays are streams of particles and are normally much weaker than gamma rays.


They can be stopped by cardboard or a thin sheet of wood.


X-rays and Gamma rays are the dangerous ones, which give you radiation burns and can kill. Very thick shields containing lead are used to stop them.





To make an atomic bomb a 'critical mass' of radioactive substance must be present to have enough material for thermal runaway to proceed well enough. About 64 pounds of Uranium were used in the first atomic bomb that was used in Japan of which nearly 2 pounds were used up in the explosion and 600 milligrams..0.6 grams or about 1/40 ounze was converted to energy...a blast which was equivalent to around 13 thousand tons of the most-used high explosive of those days, which is called TNT..Tri Nitro Toluene.





Plutonium can make a more powerful and efficient bomb than Uranium but is difficult to prepare and it takes a long time to make a small amount of bomb-grade material.





Even more energy can be had from joining atoms together instead of splitting them.


Joining them together is called fusion, and the bombs that work that way are called fusion bombs.


Hydrogen is the easiest atom to join. Two of them together make Helium. That's what powers the Sun.


The Sun is a giant hydrogen bomb that loses 10 000 tons of mass every second just from the radiation it emits from converting hydrogen into helium.


At it's core it is hot enough to make carbon by fusion too.


All natural elements heavier than hydrogen are made by fusion in stars.


The hotter the star the heavier the elements it can make.





When radioactive compounds break down they can form new elements.


Different isotopes of an element can have different breakdown products.


Uranium-238 eventually breaks down into lead.


Hardly the dream of alchemists, whose aim was to go the other way, converting lead into gold!