Scientists Create Element 117, Which Is 40 Times Heavier Than Lead

Element 117, a super-heavy atom with a long half-life is, according to an international team of scientists, real and ready to take its place on the Periodic Table.

Scientists actually confirmed the existence and lifetime og the element in 2010 thanks to experiments conducted by teams in Russia and the U.S. However, now researchers in Germany and the U.S. have created the actual element, which is reportedly 40 times heavier than lead, according to a report in Phys.org

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It wasn't easy to make element 117, whose temporary name refers to the 117 protons in its nucleus, according to LiveScience . Scientists took 18 months to create the material, berkelium, needed to synthesize it. U.S.-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) created the isotope and then a team at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, blasted it with its accelerator. They then pulled 117 atoms out of the nuclear reactions. Read more...

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