If you have to synthesize it, how is it an element? I always thought of elements as naturally occurring.
A neutron star is essentially an atomic nucleus a few miles in radius. When one neutron star merges with another big chucks splatter into space then start breaking up like popcorn. Just about any element imaginable is flung into space. Most quickly decay. It was estimated that the neutron star merger that was detected by gravity waves recently made up to 3 Earth masses of gold.
Why would an element have to be “naturally occurring”? In a supernova, there are probably all sorts of elements created that have very short half lives and decay long before they can be detected. Studying the half-life, mass and other properties (e.g. the decay history) of heavier elements gives clues and insights into the nature of the atomic nucleus, and nuclear physics.
We are still learning
The only "original" elements were hydrogen, helium, and a smidge of lithium (atomic numbers 1, 2 & 3). All the other elements were created by stars fusing those three elements together under unimaginable heat and pressure to make heavier elements.
What these guys are doing is recreating the process that the stars run on in a laboratory and gluing together weird combinations that Mother Nature never intended or never got around to making.
The heaviest "natural" elements only could be created in the biggest explosions. When CSN&Y sang, "We are stardust," they weren't being hyperbolic.
* The subject of that clause is "one" (singular), not "elements" (plural) because the object of a preposition can never be the subject. Ergo they should have used the singular form, "does:" "A synthetic element is one of 24 known chemical elements that does not occur naturally on earth."
I think it is a distinct element if has a different number of protons than any other element.
Shortest elemental half life is Astatine 213ml at 110 Nanoseconds. Hydrogen 7 is the shortest isotopic element half live of 10 to the minus 23 power seconds.
That is such a short time how can one know if the distinct subatomic particles are even associated? Seems more like they are just passing through the same space contemporaneously.
Only upto uranium. Everything after that is synthesized.