Curium
⚛️ In Your World
Curium is a synthetic, hard, dense, and silvery radioactive metal. Its intense radioactivity makes it glow purple in the dark. Its primary use is in scientific research. However, the isotope curium-244 was used as the alpha particle source for the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometers (APXS) on several Mars rovers, including Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, to analyze the composition of Martian rocks and soil.
📖 The Discovery Story
Curium was first intentionally produced and identified in 1944 at the University of California, Berkeley, by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, and Albert Ghiorso. It was the third transuranic element to be discovered, even though it is the fourth in the series. The element was named in honor of Marie and Pierre Curie, the famous pioneers of radioactivity research, in an analogy to its lanthanide neighbor, gadolinium, which was named after the scientist Johan Gadolin.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid |
| Melting Point | 1345 °C / 2453 °F |
| Boiling Point | 3110 °C / 5630 °F (estimated) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f⁷6d¹7s² |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Curium is extremely radioactive and toxic. Its intense alpha radiation poses a severe health hazard if ingested or inhaled. It accumulates in bones, and its radiation destroys bone marrow, stopping the creation of red blood cells. It must only be handled in specialized hot cells with remote manipulators.