About a year ago, four elements were added to the periodic table — but they just received their official names.
The elements were assigned atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118. According to Wired, “All of the new elements are man-made and were discovered by slamming lighter nuclei into each other and then tracking the decay of the radioactive elements. Their addition to the periodic table marks a significant scientific breakthrough, though the elements do not exist for long before they breakdown and become different elements.”
Now, the New York Times reports that they’ve been given the names Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine and Oganesson.
The names were suggested by the various scientists who helped discover the elements. Here’s the background:
- Element 113 was named after the symbol Nh and the Japanese word Nihon, which means Japan.
- Russian scientists had influence over 115, which was named after Moscow.
- American scientists helped pick the name for 117, which was named after Tennessee.
- Element 118 was named after a scientist known for hunting elements, Yuri Oganessian, by the Russian team that discovered it.
The addition of the four elements completes the periodic table’s seventh row.