Scientists find a new type of oxygen. The results are "bewildering".

 Scientists have discovered a new type of oxygen, after laboratory-preparing two new forms of the element that have properties described as “mysterious.” Yusuke Kondo, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said that a research team subjected some elements to “harsh conditions” to form oxygen-28 and another of its isotopes, oxygen-27, which is slightly smaller.

He explained that both isotopes are forms of oxygen, which always contains 8 protons in each atom. The work was carried out at the RIKEN plant, a facility designed to produce unstable radioisotopes.

According to the "Science Alert" website, the researchers succeeded during the experiment in producing two different atoms, one containing 20 neutrons and the other containing 19, thus obtaining oxygen 28 and oxygen 27, respectively.

However, the results after the end of the experiment were confusing, as oxygen 28 decayed and emitted neutrons, and quickly got rid of four neutrons and turned into oxygen 24. Oxygen 27 also decayed quickly, losing 3 neutrons to also become oxygen 24.

Most of the oxygen on Earth, including the air we breathe, is a doubly formed form of oxygen-16. It was long expected that oxygen-28 would be the next oxygen isotope after oxygen-16, but previous attempts to find it have been unsuccessful.