Hassium facts for kids

Hassium is a chemical element with the symbol Hs and the atomic number 108. It's a very heavy element, which means it's a transuranium element. Hassium is also radioactive and does not exist naturally on Earth. Scientists have to make it in special laboratories.

Hassium behaves in a similar way to osmium, an element found just above it in the periodic table. For example, hassium can combine with oxygen to form a compound called hassium tetroxide. This compound is not as "volatile" (meaning it doesn't turn into a gas as easily) as osmium tetroxide.

How Hassium Was Discovered

Hassium was first made in 1984. A team of scientists created it at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. The main scientists leading this team were Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg.

Naming the Element

The name "Hassium" comes from "Hassia," which is the Latin name for the German state of Hesse. This is the state where the GSI lab is located.

Before it was officially named Hassium, scientists had a disagreement about what to call it. This was known as an element naming controversy. For a while, its temporary name from the IUPAC was unniloctium, with the symbol Uno. In 1994, an IUPAC committee suggested naming element 108 "hahnium." However, the name "Hassium" was finally accepted internationally in 1997.

Hassium-270 Isotope

In December 2006, scientists found a special version of Hassium called Isotope 270. An international team, led by the Technical University of Munich, made this discovery.

What Makes Hassium-270 Special?

Hassium-270 is considered a "doubly magic" isotope. This means it has a very stable arrangement of protons and neutrons in its nucleus. Because of this, it has a relatively long half-life of 22 seconds. Scientists had predicted that such heavy and stable isotopes should exist. Some theories even suggest that Hassium-270 might be part of an "island of stability," where super-heavy elements could be much more stable than others.

Images for kids

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  The GSI's linear particle accelerator UNILAC, where hassium was first discovered and its chemistry studied.

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  The Hessentag festival in 2011, celebrating the culture of the German state of Hesse, which hassium is named after.

See also

In Spanish: Hasio para niños