Natural isotopes are either stable isotopes or radioactive isotopes that have a sufficiently long half-life to allow them to exist in substantial concentrations in the Earth (such as bismuth-209, with a half-life of 1.9 years, potassium-40 with a half-life of 1.251(3) years), daughter products of those isotopes (such as Th, with a half-life of 24 days) or cosmogenic elements. The heaviest stable isotope is lead-208, but the heaviest natural isotope is U-238.
Many elements have both natural and artificial isotopes. For example, hydrogen has three natural isotopes and another four known artificial isotopes. A further distinction among stable natural isotopes is division into primordial (existed when the Solar System formed) and cosmogenic (created by cosmic ray bombardment or other similar processes).