Oganesson, element 118


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Oganesson, element 118

Oganesson, known as Og on the Periodic Table, is element 118. It is the last element on the table. For now, at least. Oganesson is a synthetic chemical element, meaning that it was made by people, not nature, so it is very rare. Oganesson grouping upon the Periodic Table is group zero, also known as group eighteen. The elements that make this up are known as the noble gases. The Noble gases are, nonflammable, colorless, tasteless, and odorless. These elements are on the far right of the table.

Oganesson was first synthesized at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, in 2002, by a team of Russian and American chemists. In December of 2015, It was finally recognized and proven to be one of the four new elements by the Joint Working Party of the international scientific bodies IUPAC(International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) and IUPAP(International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). Even still, it was formally named almost a year later on November 26, 2016. The name was in honor of a nuclear physicist, with the name of Yuri Oganesson. His element is one out of the only two who were named after a person during their lifetime. The other was Seaborgium. Yuri is also still alive today, though, while Glenn T. Seaborg has already passed.

Oganesson has the highest atomic number, 118, and has the highest atomic mass of all the elements. The radioactive Oganesson atom is very unstable, and only five(maybe six) atoms of the nuclide Og have been detected since 2005. Although this allowed very little characterization, there are many theories about the fact that Oganesson could be the only reactive element out of the noble gases, and the only synthetic one, too. ℼ