is it possible for atoms of oxygen to have anything other than 8 protons in the nucleus ? why or why not

No, an oxygen atom cannot contain more than 8 protons.

Explanation:

An oxygen atom is described as an atom with 8 protons found in the nucleus (atom weight of 16).

If hypothetically, an oxygen atom contained 9 protons, it would no longer be considered an "oxygen" atom. Once an oxygen atom has 9 protons it is considered a "fluorine" atom.

it is to be noted that an alpha particle is an helium nucleus. so it contains 2 protons 2 neutrons and has a mass number of 4. when alpha decay particles are ejected from the nucleus it gets transformed into an atom which has atomic number less than 2 and a mass number less than 4.

an equation that could represent alpha decay is radium 226 decay of alpha particle forms radon 222.

→

there are no statements provided but here is why:

sulfur belongs to group 16 because it can be found in nature whether it is in a free or combined state.

hope this