Meet 115, the Newest Element on the Periodic Table
The extremely heavy element was just confirmed by scientists in Sweden.
In case you forgot your high school chemistry, here's a quick refresher: An element's atomic number is the number of protons it contains in its nucleus.
The heaviest element in nature is uranium, which has 92 protons. But heavier elements-which have more protons in their nucleus-can be created through nuclear fusion. (Related: Learn how to make an element.)
The man-made 115 was first created by Russian scientists in Dubna about ten years ago. This week, chemists at Lund University in Sweden announced that they had replicated the Russian study at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Germany.
(See pictures of the labs where new elements are created.)
Element 115 will join its neighbors 114 and 116-flerovium and livermorium, respectively-on
