Hassium is a chemical element with symbol Hs and atomic number 108, named after the German state of Hesse. It is a synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature) and radioactive; the most stable known isotope, 269Hs, has a half-life of approximately 9.7 seconds, although an unconfirmed metastable state, 277mHs, may have a longer half-life of about 130 seconds. More than 100 atoms of hassium have been synthesized to date.
Three reasons Hassium stands out
- 1
Synthetic element, named after birthplace of Goethe, a famous German polymath.
- 2
Its radioactivity makes studying its chemistry difficult.
- 3
It was first created in 1984 by bombarding lead targets with iron nuclei.
A superheavy element with recognizable chemistry
Hassium is named for the German state of Hesse, home to the team that confirmed it. Researchers converted a few atoms into hassium tetroxide and detected the molecules after rapid transport. Its volatility resembled osmium tetroxide, a striking periodic relationship demonstrated atom by atom.