Scientists have created a new element simply called "117", and now ask, "how can we create elements 119 and 120?”.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/australian-scientists-help-discover-new-element-117/story-fnjwl2dr-1226903689035

Lining up alongside every element known to man comes a new superheavy addition simply called 117. At the extreme opposite end of the periodic table to Hydrogen, this new discovery was cooked up in a German laboratory by a team of researchers including those from The Australian National University.

Matching the heaviest atoms ever observed it is 40 per cent heavier than lead and has not been found in nature. Instead, the men in white coats fused together the nuclei (the dense centre of an atom) of several smaller atoms.

“Making element 117 is at the absolute boundary of what is possible right now,” says Professor David Hinde, Director of the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility operated by the ANU Nuclear Physics Department.

Cheers.

Thanks Wiggo :)

I was reading about the new element, a bit ago.



Element 117 — so-called because it is an atom with 117 protons in its nucleus — was previously one of the missing items on the periodic table of elements. These super-heavy elements, which include all the elements beyond atomic number 104, are not found naturally on Earth, and thus have to be created synthetically within a laboratory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununseptium
Ununseptium

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I wonder how long it survived.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Yet another very interesting bit of news! Thank you Wiggo and Lynn :) Wonder what uses it could be put to?


Loved this bit... :)

it reveals a general increasing stability trend for isotopes heavier than 301Uus, with half-lives exceeding the age of the universe for the heaviest isotopes like 335Uus

Had a few bla-blah blaaaah-bla moments trying to get my head round it, but liked it nevertheless. :)

I wonder how long it survived.

Good question Bob :)

any of these new elements can make awesome new metal in order to make spaceships ?

That would be good wouldn't it Michel448a :) though I'm not sure I'd want to be underneath one made of this stuff... I think it's heavier than lead so even if it went up, I think it would come back down pretty quickly :)

All these "super heavy" elements made so far are extremely unstable, typical half life being of the order of seconds or less. There has been some theoretical work done which suggests that there may some hope for stable elements in with atomic numbers in the region of 140-160, but nobody has managed to get near that yet.
As for being useful in terms of the manufacture of space ships, the search is on for "supper-alloys" of light to medium mass metals and composites which combine high strength with low mass - remember every tonne of mass you add to a vessel's structure is one more tonne of "dead weight" you have to accelerate, and every tonne of structure for a given enclosed volume is a tonne less payload...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

- remember every tonne of mass you add to a vessel's structure is one more tonne of "dead weight" you have to accelerate, ..

but in space, nothing has 'weight' no ? everything float down there (i mean up there)

Yes, but you have to put it in orbit first.
Tullio

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It may not have weight in space but it for sure has mass. It would resist acceleration in proportion to it's mass. Newtons law F=MA so to accelerate we write: A=M/F so the more mass the greater the force required to achieve a given unit of acceleration.

Which is why it makes sense to fly components up to an orbiting Space dock to construct a spaceship there. What we need of course is some sort of shuttle craft. Oh, silly me, didn't we have some once?

SpaceX with its Dragon and Orbital Science Corporation are building reusable rockets. SpaceX has sued the US Air Force for its use of Russian rockets to put spy satellites in orbit.
Tullio

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Elon Musk is certainly challenging the military-industrial complex of the USA. Italy is bound to acquire maybe 90 F35 fighters from Lockheed-Martin, while the US Marine Corps has acquires 74 Harriers from Great Britain, at a much lower cost. We have only two short deck carriers, the Garibaldi and the Cavour, and one of them (the earlier) may be sold.
Tullio

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boy did this thread make a turn. What has all this got to do with element 117. There is already a spacex thread

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Don't blame me Bob! I didn't start it!

If I had a dollar for every Seti thread that ever went of topic, I'd be a very rich man. And if I red x'd every one that did so, I'd have a very sore finger :-)) Now if that isn't off topic I don't know what is ......

Off topic? Is that not good then? :)

Think it came from a discussion on propelling things (made of element 117) around space and how a craft that heavy would have to be built in space to start with. Given that it could be quite an unstable element - we'd probably have bits dropping onto our heads quite regularly. :)

Heavy bits.

They discoverd the element in 2010 already IIRC

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rOZZ
Music
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One might think so, but these super-heavies are intrinsically unstable.
If you decay, say 121, you will end up with either a number of much lighter elements, and a few alpha particles, or, if lucky, you will have another unstable isotope of 117, which will in turn decay to something lighter and so on until you end up with a whole bunch of alpha & beta particles and a stable element like lead...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

As I recall, lead is the heaviest stable element. Everything heavier decays.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.