Copernicium was first made in 1996 at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, by a team led by Sigurd Hofmann. They fired zinc-70 nuclei at a target of lead-208 and detected a single atom of the new element, with atomic number 112, identified through its chain of radioactive decays. Later experiments, including some in Japan and Russia, confirmed the discovery, and it was recognised officially in 2009. The element was named in 2010 in honour of Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer who proposed in the sixteenth century that the planets orbit the Sun. Copernicium is synthetic and intensely radioactive, with isotopes that last only seconds, and it is studied only atom by atom.
Before and after
- 22 November 1995Release of Toy Story
- December 1995The Hubble Deep Field
- 2 December 1995Launch of Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
- 4 December 1995Creation of JavaScript
- 1996Discovery of copernicium
- 1996Creation of Visual Basic Script
- 1996Founding of Union State
- 1996Creation of OCaml
- 1996Creation of Active Server Pages
More in Science & technology
- 1971Email
- 1973Mobile phone
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- 15 January 2001Wikipedia
- 20 October 2004Creation of Ubuntu
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.