Element 112 named
2 Mar 2010 by Evoluted New Media
Chemical element 112 has been named Copernicium in honour of the scientist Copernicus, the first astronomer to put the sun at the centre of the universe.
Chemical element 112 has been named Copernicium in honour of the scientist Copernicus, the first astronomer to put the sun at the centre of the universe.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) accepted the name proposed by the international team of scientists who first produced the element in February 1996. Cn has been adopted as copernicium’s chemical symbol.
Copernicium was created using a 100 metre long accelerator at GSI Helmholtzzentrum, which fired zinc ions into lead foil. The atomic nuclei of the atoms fused to produce the new element 112. The element was only stable for a fraction of a second, and was identified by measuring the alpha particles emitted during the radioactive decay of the element.
Further independent experiments verified the discovery of the element and IUPAC invited the GSI scientists to name the element – the sixth they have named.
