
MSU's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is one of the world's leading rare isotope research facilities. FRIB accelerates stable nuclei to half the speed of light and fragments them on a target to produce nuclear varieties (isotopes) that do not exist on Earth. Researchers study them before they decay in less than a second. The secrets we learn could help explain what happens in supernovae and the origins of elements that make up the human body. Now that the new linear accelerator is online (May 2022), FRIB is expected to discover over 1000 new isotopes!