Although copernicium was only recently ‘discovered’, it is named after Nicolaus Copernicus, an influential 16th century astronomer. This image brings together a 17th century star chart, concentric rings inspired by the solar system, a silvery metallic form, and the ground plan of the heavy ion accelerator where the element was first created.

Fact Box

Uses

At present, it is only used in research.

History

The first atoms of element 112 were announced by Sigurd Hofmann and produced at the Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung (GSI) at Darmstadt, Germany, in 1996. Isotope-277 had been produced by bombarding lead for two weeks with zinc travelling at 30,000 km per second. Isotope-277 had a half-life of 0.24 milliseconds.

Since then, other isotopes of copernicium have been made. Isotope-285 was observed as part of the decay sequence of flerovium (element 114) produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at Dubna, Russia, as was isotope-284 which was observed as part of the decay sequence of livermorium (element 116).