New Super-Heavy Element 115 Confirmed

Live Science ^ | 8-27-13 | Megan Gannon

[smokingfrog]

Scientists say they've created a handful of atoms of the elusive element 115, which occupies a mysterious corner of the periodic table.

The super-heavy element has yet to be officially named, but it is temporarily called ununpentium, roughly based on the Latin and Greek words for the digits in its atomic number, 115.  

The atomic number is the number of protons an element contains. The heaviest element commonly found in nature is uranium, which has 92 protons, but scientists can load even more protons into an atomic nucleus and make heavier elements through nuclear fusion reactions. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

Scientists hope that by creating heavier and heavier elements, they will find a theoretical "island of stability," an undiscovered region in the periodic table where stable super-heavy elements with as yet unimagined practical uses might exist. 

In experiments in Dubna, Russia about 10 years ago, researchers reported that they created atoms with 115 protons. Their measurements have now been confirmed in experiments at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany.

[Vendome]

I’d like to run that through my .45 and my .308 M1A.....

[null and void]

[Robert A Cook PE]

No big deal. UNunstupidium was re-discovered Nov 2008, and has ever since grown in size and density in the GrOPe leaders in the Senate .....

[Secret Agent Man]

after the first mooch, fatassium

[Still Thinking]

Unobtanium?

[dfwgator]

Wow, that’s heavy.

[Kirkwood]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4yiERTZj8

[Defiant]

Bob Lazar stole several pounds of it from Area 51.

[llevrok]

Ding ! Ding ! Ding !

Winner ! Winner !!

That’s the line of this post (so far).

[GraceG]

That was the first thing outta my mind as well...

[edpc]

Super heavy? How about Gottahernium....?

[BradyLS]

You win.

[Fresh Wind]

Obamium. Very unstable, highly radioactive, likely to explode at any minute.

[donmeaker]

Californium currently is known to have a very low critical mass required. A californium bullet, with a hollow inside could perhaps reach critical mass as the front flattened, giving a moderate nuclear explosive yield.

Smaller than Hiroshima, larger than the largest conventional bomb.

[skinkinthegrass]

bump to the top... science ping.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks skinkinthegrass.

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[ken5050]

Thanks for that. The man's a genius. I had the good fortune to catch him live several times in the late 60's..

My favorite line of his:

"It's a sobering fact for me to realize that when Mozart was my age, he'd already been dead for 20 years."

[Wildbill22]

“Bob Lazar stole several pounds of it from Area 51.”

I wonder if Lazars claims are even close to reality? I think he said 114 was unstable, and 115 was stable.
I know he was a scam artist, but he was a good one.

[Flick Lives]

Californium currently is known to have a very low critical mass required. A californium bullet, with a hollow inside could perhaps reach critical mass as the front flattened, giving a moderate nuclear explosive yield. Smaller than Hiroshima, larger than the largest conventional bomb.

Wicked kickback.