Quote:
Originally Posted by potter
Where did you get this idea that they say/think they absolutely know for sure how many elements there are? The periodic table consists of the known elements, there might be plenty more out there in the universe we don't know about yet - and when we find them we add them to the periodic table. There's plenty of "gaps" in the table as it stands right now that scientists believe we'll eventually "fill in" as we find the elements.
All of this information is freely available online, and it's something you were likely even taught in grade school. You should probably read the wiki page on simple things like this before asking relatively dumb questions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table |
From Wikipedia:
Although all known chemical matter is composed of these elements, chemical matter itself is hypothesized to constitute only about 15% of the matter in the universe. The remainder is believed to be dark matter, a range of substances whose composition is largely unknown and not composed of chemical elements, since it lacks protons, neutrons or electrons.