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MeetTheNewestElement117|Youngzine

MeetTheNewestElement117
May12,2014ByRadhika,YoungEditor
Whenyoulookattheobjectsthatsurroundyou,itseasyto
forgetthateverythingismadeofatomsofvariouselements.
Everyelement,fromthemorecommononeslikeCarbonand
OxygentothemoreobscureoneslikePromethiumand
Europium,hasitsownuniquepropertiesandcannotbebroken
downbychemicalmeans.
Scientistshavediscovered118differentelementsboth
naturallyoccurringandmanmade.Becauseeachelementhas
itsownsetofproperties,scientistscreatedatabletoorganize
them:theperiodictableofelements.
ThePeriodicTable
ThemodernversionoftheperiodictablewasfirstdevelopedbyRussianchemist
DmitriMendeleevin1869.Alltheelementsareorderedbyincreasingatomicnumber,
orthenumberofprotonsithas(aprotonisatiny,positivelychargedparticleinall
atoms).Forexample,sinceHydrogenhasoneproton,itislocatedinthetopleft
cornerofthetable.Thisisausefulmethodoforganizingelements,becauseeach
elementhasadifferentnumberofprotons.
Thetableisorganizedintoperiods(rows)andgroups(columns).Eachgroup
containselementswiththesamenumberofvalenceelectrons.Electronsaretiny,
negativelychargedsubatomicparticles,andvalenceelectronsaretheelectronsthat Mendeleev,Courtesy
Wikiepdia
determinehowanatomofoneelementwillinteractwithatomsofotherelements.
Therefore,elementsineachgrouphavedifferentpropertieswhenitcomestochemicalinteractions.
RadioactiveElements
Radioactiveelementsareunstableandemitparticlesofmatterandlightastheybreakdownovertime.
Manyelements,especiallythosethatarenotnaturallyoccurringandhavealargenumberofprotons,are
radioactive.Thisisbecausethelargeranatomicnucleusgets,themoreitsprotonsrepeloneanother
withtheirpositivecharges,makingit,ingeneral,lessstable,ormoreradioactive.
Thankstotechnologylikeprotonaccelerators,scientistshavetheabilitytocreateelements.Bycolliding
differentelementsatextremelyhighspeeds,scientistscanformatomsthatcanarrangethemselveswith
anewnumberofprotonsandelectrons.RecentlydiscoveredelementsincludeElement115andElement
113.

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1/18/2016

MeetTheNewestElement117|Youngzine

In2010,researchersintheGSIHelmholtzCenterFor
HeavyIonResearchinGermanywereabletocreatea
newelement.Element117,knowntemporarilyas
Ununseptium,isextremelyunstableanddecaysinjust
50milliseconds.However,itcanformanatomic
structure,givingitthestatusofanelement.
Thissuperheavyelementwasmissingfromtheperiodic
table.Onceitisconfirmedbyapanelofscientists,allit
needsisacoolnewname!
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