Hassium
⚛️ In Your World
Hassium is a synthetic, superheavy element that has only ever been created a few atoms at a time in particle accelerators. Its most stable known isotope has a half-life of only about 10 seconds. Due to its extreme instability and the minuscule amounts produced, it has no applications outside of fundamental scientific research. Its only purpose is to help scientists understand the behavior of superheavy elements.
📖 The Discovery Story
Hassium was first synthesized in 1984 by a German research team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. They created it by bombarding a lead-208 target with iron-58 nuclei. The element was named "hassium" from the Latin name for the German state of Hesse (Hassia), where the GSI research center is located.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | Unknown |
| Boiling Point | Unknown |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d⁶7s² (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Hassium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis. All work with hassium is conducted in specialized particle accelerator facilities with remote handling to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.