Growing evidence for new element, atomic number 115

An international team of researchers, led by Swedish physicists, says it has confirmed the existence of a previously unknown element with atomic number 115. The element is highly radioactive and exists for less than a second before decaying into lighter atoms. An experiment conducted in Germany confirmed earlier measurements performed by research groups in Russia, researchers said. "This was a very successful experiment and is one of the most important in the field in recent years," Dirk Rudolph, a physics professor at Sweden's Lund University said. After the initial Russian discovery of element 115, independent confirmation to measure the exact proton number was required, Rudolph told BBC News. By bombarding a thin film of americium with calcium ions, the research team was able to measure photons in connection with the new element's alpha decay, and certain energies of the photons agreed with the expected energies for X-ray radiation, a "fingerprint" of a given element, a Lund release said Tuesday. Despite the findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, the super-heavy element has yet to be verified by the governing body of chemistry and physics, which will decide whether to recommend further experiments before acknowledging the discovery of the new element.