Moscovium
⚛️ In Your World
Moscovium 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, moscovium-290, has a half-life of less than a second. Due to its extreme instability and the fact that only a handful of atoms have ever been made, it has no applications outside of fundamental scientific research. Its only purpose is to help scientists understand the behavior and limits of atomic nuclei.
📖 The Discovery Story
Moscovium was first successfully synthesized in August 2003 by a joint team of Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, and American scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The team, led by Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian, produced moscovium by bombarding a target of americium-243 with accelerated calcium-48 ions. The element was officially named in 2016 in honor of the Moscow Oblast, the region where the JINR is located.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | ~670 K (397 °C, 746 °F) (predicted) |
| Boiling Point | ~1400 K (1127 °C, 2061 °F) (predicted) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s²7p³ (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Moscovium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis. All work with moscovium is conducted in specialized particle accelerator facilities with remote handling to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.