New Element Joins Periodic Table

The periodic table of elements will soon gain a new—and the heaviest known—element, the BBC reports. Element 112 was first discovered over a decade ago and its existence has now been confirmed after extensive experiments. Authorities have temporarily named it "ununbium," and its German discoverers have been tasked with giving it a permanent name.

Element 112, which is 227 times the atomic weight of hydrogen, is the latest "super-heavy" element to be added to the table. The German scientists who found it have been competing with scientists in the US, Russia, and Japan for decades to add newer, heavier elements to the table. They believe that with modern particle accelerators, the table could soon go as high as 120.
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