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In creating five new isotopes, an international research team working at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University has brought the stars closer to Earth.

These represent the first batch of new isotopes made at FRIB, a user facility for the U.S.

Gade is also a co-spokesperson of the project, which was led by Oleg Tarasov, senior research physicist at FRIB.

"This is probably the first time these isotopes have existed on the surface of the Earth," said Bradley Sherrill, University Distinguished Professor in MSU's College of Natural Science and head of the Advanced Rare Isotope Separator department at FRIB.

For an explanation as to what "advanced" means in this context, Sherrill said that researchers needed only a couple individual particles of a new isotope to confirm its existence and identity using FRIB's state-of-the-art instruments.