Element Story - Hassium

Hassium is an element with atomic number 108, belonging to group 8 of the periodic table as a superheavy element. All of its isotopes are radioactive, it does not occur naturally, and is synthesized artificially in particle accelerators. It was first synthesized in 1984 by researchers at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, and its name originates from Hassia, the Latin name for the German state of Hesse. Due to the extremely small amounts produced and its short half-life, Hassium is not used in daily life or industry, but is mainly used to study the nuclear structure and chemical properties of superheavy elements. Chemically, it is expected to exhibit similar properties to iron, ruthenium, and osmium, which are also in group 8. In actual experiments, Hassium was confirmed to react with oxygen to form a volatile oxide, showing chemical properties similar to osmium. As it is a very heavy element, relativistic effects are significant in the motion of its electrons. Studying this allows us to verify how well the rules of the periodic table hold in regions with very large atomic numbers.