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Hazel-Rah t1_jcbro8r wrote

Reply to comment by wombatlegs in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower

Radon decays with alpha particles, which are just bare helium nuclei, two neutrons and two protons

So the electrons will tend to stay with the new Po-218 atom, giving it a nice -2 charge, which will encourage it to attach itself to whatever random dust it passes by.

Once the alpha particle slows down, it will pick up some electrons from somewhere eventually too.

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