Super-heavy atoms are the transactinide elements beginning with rutherfordium (atomic number 104). They have all been made artificially and currently have no practical purpose because their half-lives do not allow the element to survive longer than a few minutes to just a few milliseconds, thus making the element extremely hard to study and serve a purpose other than research.
Super-heavy atoms have all been created during the latter half of the 20th century and are continually being created during the 21st century as technology advances. They are created through the bombardment of elements in a particle accelerator, for example the nuclear fusion of californium-249 and carbon-12 creates rutherfordium. These elements are created in quantities on the atomic scale and no method of mass creation has been found.
See also
Last updated: 10-08-2005 11:40:28
