Japan Claims Heaviest-Ever Element

mOoZik writes "According to People's Daily Online, Japanese scientists claim to have created a new element, whose atomic number is 113, by bombarding a Bismuth atom target with 2.5 trillion zinc atoms per second for 80 days. The claim, as that of Russian and American scientists that claimed to have created elements 113 and 115 in February, remains to be officially confirmed."

Comments

Mass

[vijaya_chandra]

The element's atomic mass number is 278, meaning its nucleus has 113 protons and 165 neutrons, he added.

For the lazy ppl who wouldn't have time to go through the article.

Quite surprising to see a mentioning of the atomic mass number only as the last sentence of the article, as this, and not the atomic number, actually decides whether this new element is the heaviest or not.

Re:Island of Stability

[crow]

Interesting. For the non-physicists here, the wikipedia article on the Island of stability is more accessible.

From that article:

The term "particularly stable" is in comparison to the half-lives of slightly lighter or heavier elements; the half-lives of elements in the island of stability are still expected to be measured in fractions of a second, or perhaps measured in days, though some theoretical possibilities include much longer periods.

Re:I hope I hope I hope

[Lazyhound]

Just what in the hell are you going on about, son?

In the X-Com series, Elerium-115 is used as fuel for spacecraft engines, fusion bombs, etc.

Re:Ummm.

[Scorillo47]

Maybe some of them are still surprisingly stable. But you might never know since these atoms are created in extreme conditions (usually bombarding atoms of element X with atoms of element Y). This would cause quick destruction of the freshly creaed elements.

For example, a Uranium 238 is pretty stable (half-life in order of millions of years) but when a slow neutron hits it then it is pretty much gone.

mass not weight

[grishknash]

Its mass not weight. Its the most massive atom not the heaviest. The heaviest is near some black hole in the highest gravitational field currently unknown to man. Not quite sure how Einstein would state it. Something about its acceleration in the bending of the spacetime in that location....

I though 116 was the heaviest

[dnamaners]

Looking over at my periodic table on the wall and low i see more than 112, my table goes to 118 but misses the odd #'s over 112. I thought that 116 (ununhexium) was the most massive element and then they missed 114 (ununquadium) as well.

I am not sure if 116 or 114 are "confirmed" but 116 is fairly reproducible and the article states that japans 113 is not yet "confirmed" so that would but it on par with these others. As a note 118 was reported by a Russian but was later retracted due to reproducibility problems.

Here is some info sites:

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/te xt/Uuh/key.html

http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/U/ununh exium.html


** Although lead is rather non-toxic in metal form, when properly accelerated things change slightly **

Re:I hope I hope I hope

[bradkittenbrink]

you can't have an element equal to or above 117. Or is it 147? Anybody remember or have a reference handy?

Not sure where you got that, but wikipedia seems to think that anything up to (and possibly beyond) 218 is theoretically possible. You may have been thinking of the fact that 118 is the last element that will fit on the periodic table without extending it. However, the periodic table is kind of irrelevant as far as what elements are theoretically possible since it describes only electron configurations and the limiting factor in the formation of new elements is nuclear configuration.

Re:M&M's in soda?

[nusratt]

"What happens if you put M&M's in a bottle of soda and shake it?"

when I was a kid there was a 7-Up clone called BubbleUp (I think).
My best friend and I discovered that inserting M&Ms made it foam violently.
Shaking, of course, aggravates it. ;-)

Re:I hope I hope I hope

[JabberWokky]

Found a fairly clear explanation on this web page:

For the reasons previously given, the limiting value, the equivalent of zero in each scalar dimension, is eight units of one-dimensional, or four units of two-dimensional, rotational displacement. In the notation used herein, the latter is a 4-4 magnetic combination. However, as indicated in Chapter 24, the destructive limit is not reached until the displacement in the electric dimension also arrives at the equivalent of the last magnetic unit. A rotational combination (atom) is therefore stable, at zero magnetic ionization, up to 4-4-31, or the equivalent 5-4-(1), which is element 117. One more step reaches the limit at which the rotational motion terminates.

--
Evan