Properties of the 99th element in the periodic table reported 

Properties of the 99th element in the periodic table reported 

Part of: GS Prelims and GS- III – Sci & Tech

In news

• A team of scientists at the Berkeley Lab has reported some of the properties of element 99 in the periodic table called “Einsteinium”, named after Albert Einstein.

Key takeaways 

• For the first time, researchers have been able to characterise some of the properties of this element.
• It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb (the detonation of a thermonuclear device called “Ivy Mike” in the Pacific Ocean).
• The most common isotope of the element, einsteinium 253 has a half-life of 20 days.

• Because of its high radioactivity and short half-life of all einsteinium isotopes, even if the element was present on Earth during its formation, it has most certainly decayed.
• This is the reason that it cannot be found in nature and needs to be manufactured using very precise and intense processes.