Onnesium

Onnesium is a rare element, atomic number 118, of which certain isotopes are only mildly radioactive, and is a proven room temperature superconductor under the right conditions.

Description (Specifications)

Onnesium is an extremely rare superheavy element from the "island of stability" beyond the short-lived radioactives at the end of the periodic table. It is known to be created in nature in only one way — as a result of a supernova - and is normally found as small, silvery spheres embedded within meteoric nickel-iron, or in impact craters upon planetary surfaces. Of all the supernova systems studied to date, only 70% have been found to contain even trace deposits of onnesium. A common theory holds that large quantities of onnesium could only be found in a rapidly orbiting, highly unstable accretion ring at the event horizon of a black hole, on or near the surface of a neutron star, or as a thin coating on the diamond cores of large gas giants.

Onnesium is an efficient, natural metaconductor that has consistent properties across a wide temperature band. Metaconductors are a vital component of modern technology such as gravitics, starship jump drives, starship thrusters and high-tech weapons systems. Devices built using onnesium are significantly more compact and energy efficient. The quantity of onnesium found to date has been so limited that only a few experimental prototypes exist using onnesium metaconductors.

History & Background (Dossier)

During the Terran Confederation and Rule of Man, this element was known as Oganesson to the Solomani of Terra.

Recent discoveries in the Gavza (Reaver's Deep 1117) system have suggested that a supernova at Reavers' Deep 1118 may have spread onnesium to several nearby systems within the Scotian Deep Subsector.

Onnesium has also been discovered in the Talak system, Talak (Far Frontiers 1537) on the world of Vahjdi (world). The system is currently undergoing a civil war, making mining operations difficult at best.

A widely known "spacer's myth" talks of the Victory Belt, a large asteroid belt composed entirely of onnesium-rich bodies circling a neutron star. A favorite tale of belters, the existence of such a belt may be theoretically possible, but so far has not been found. The scientific consensus in the Imperium is that the Victory Belt legend is just that: a legend. However, several scientists have, over the centuries, sponsored some serious investigations into not only the belt's theoretical possibility, but its location and possible composition.

Worlds & Sectors (Astrography)

Onnesium is a very rare element and is only found on a handful of systems and worlds within Charted Space.

World Listing: 1105

This resource has been located upon the following systems and worlds:

4 of 4 World articles in Onnesium

Gavza  •  Irlu (Ma 2008)  •  Ur (Da 1532)  •  Vahjdi  •  

startbacknext(4 listed)

References

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• William H. Keith Jr., J. Andrew Keith. Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars (FASA, 1981), .
• Citation Missing - Far Traveller 2
• Philip Athans. Manhunt: The Onnesium Quest, Vol. 1 (Far Future Enterprises, 2022), .