Published on May 7th, 2014
0Scientists Discovered New Element: Ununseptium, The Heaviest Element
Scientists announce that they have discovered a new chemical element that will complement the periodic table.
It is a new super - heavy element, which was named ununseptium, because it has 117 protons in the nucleus.
Items that have so many protons in the nucleus does not occur naturally, and can only be created in the laboratory. The super - heavy elements have over 104 protons. The heaviest element that occurs in nature is uranium, which has 92 protons.
Laboratory scientists create heavier elements like uranium by adding protons in the atomic nucleus through nuclear fusion reactions.
The more protons it has, the more unstable it is and therefore super -heavy elements live only a few microseconds or nanoseconds, then they are destroyed. Therefore, they do not have practical applications.
The 120-meter long linear accelerator at GSI, which accelerated the calcium-ions used to produce element 117. Via Universitaet Mainz
However, scientists hope to discover whether it is possible that super-heavy elements can become stable.
Ununseptium was first obtained in 2010 by a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia.
Since then, scientists have done tests to confirm the existence of this element.
Quick Facts:
Ununseptium
- Atomic Number: 117
- Atomic Symbol: Uus
- Atomic Weight: [294]
- Melting Point: Unknown
- Boiling Point: Unknown
- Word origin: The name means one-one-seven (its atomic number) in Latin.
Source: From Quarks to Quasars
About the Author
Mihalka Tiberiu , editor of Discovery-Zone. News portal for science, technology, nature and travel that aims to be the largest site to popularize science and general knowledge. Discovery-Zone brings daily news of science, investigates and analyses the controversial inventions or discoveries of the past century. Find us on Google+