Ununpentium New Element Gets Number 115 In The Periodic Table
The Periodic Table will soon have element number 115. Called the Ununpentium, the new element was created by researchers from Lund University in Sweden by slamming atoms of one element, calcium, into atoms of another called americium. It is a super-heavy, radioactive element with atomic number 115.
Evidence for element 115 was first discovered by Russian scientists in 2004. But additional research now has confirmed that the element’s atomic number — the number of protons in the nucleus of one atom of the substance — is 115, BBC News reports.
If added to the periodic table, element 115 would join its recently named neighbors, livermorium and flerovium (elements 114 and 116), which were added to the table in 2011.
A paper about element 115 will be published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters on August 27, 2013.