Heaviest Element Officially Named Copernicium

Yahoo News Link

The heaviest element yet known is now officially named "Copernicium," after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicum has the atomic number 112 - this number denotes the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. It is 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element officially recognized by international union for chemistry IUPAC.

On the periodic table of elements, Copernicium will have the symbol "Cn." The team had originally suggested "Cp" as the element's symbol, but because this abbreviation has other uses in science (such as a material's specific heat), the team agreed to "Cn."

Personally, Ive never heard of element 112 or its original name. Im not sure how new this element is, but a few years ago in Highschool, Im pretty sure I never heard about it.

I dont really know the impact of the element being the heaviest, but Im sure some chemists will be able to tell us the impact this element could have. I just thought this was a cool bit of information to share.

It probably existed in picograms for nanoseconds!

That seems to be the story with elements that high up.

I'll be truly excited if this so called island of stability has any truth to it. Doesn't seem all that likely but who knows.

Oh, good for Nickleass Copperknickers! Pity he's not here. He was one of the greats.

[edit on 25-2-2010 by OZtracized]

reply to post by buni11687


Wow I didn't know they haven't recognized element 115 yet, Ununpentium, the stuff that Bob Lazar claims powers flying saucers

I mean I don't believe Lazar, but I thought the element was proven real even if it has a half life of only a few milliseconds.

It's been recognized as a bona fide stable element for some years but its name was ununbium (Uub) until this announcement. Uuq (ununquadium) or element 114 is also recognized and may also get an easier to pronounce name sometime soon. 113, 115 and higher are yet to show any stable enough isotopes to be considered stable elements.


[edit on 25/2/2010 by Pilgrum]

reply to post by Pilgrum

I'm not sure what the criteria are for officially recognizing an element, but I'm not sure copernicum is a "stable element" either:

Isotopes of copernicium

Copernicium (Cn) has no stable isotopes. A standard atomic mass cannot be given.

Some isotopes of copernicum have a half life of just a fraction of a millisecond but even the longest half life isotopes are pretty short and therefore are considered unstable.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


For that matter, every element above Uranium (92) is considered a 'synthetic' element with varying degrees of stability. Not absolutely sure how 'they' (nuclear physicists) determine whether it's an element as such but it could have something to do with it having a measurable decay rate or half-life as opposed to immediately breaking up. As you say some of the half-lives are ridiculously short so it has to be a fine line as to whether there's any degree of actual stability being demonstrated for some of these 'elements'.


[edit on 25/2/2010 by Pilgrum]