The periodic table of the elements has grown ever since the first version was published by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. And now scientists in Sweden suggest it's time to add yet another element to the table.
Now, a new set of experiments backs up the discovery of one of those elements. An international team of physicists has synthesized an element with 115 protons in the GSI accelerator in Germany. This isn't the first time a research group has synthesized the element, which has the temporary name of ununpentium (Latin for one-one-five, plus "-ium.") A team of Russian and U.S. scientists first made ununpentium in the early 2000s and published a paper about it in 2006. However, at the time, the IUPAC didn't consider that enough evidence to officially recognize—or name—ununpentium. The new GSI studies are another step toward official recognition.
Dr. Rudolph and his team synthesized element 115 by blasting calcium ions (with 20 protons) at a film of americium, a radioactive element with 95 protons. Super-heavy elements like ununpentium decay rapidly, so the team measured the photons (light particles) released by the decay of the sample. They confirmed that the energy of the photons matched up with the element's expected radioactive "fingerprint."
If added to the periodic table, element 115 would join its recently named neighbors, livermorium and flerovium (elements 114 and 116), which were added to the table in 2011.
for more information: .huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/element-115-ununpentium-periodic-table
still more information: www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/new-accelerator-study-confirms-theoretical-element-115-exists
and still more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununpentium
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