Scientists from California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, have discovered element 118. The three atoms that they found have an average lifetime of 0.9 milliseconds. That’s too short to study the new element’s chemical properties, but the superheavy atom sits directly beneath radon on the periodic table. It’s in the same family as helium and neon.

In 1999 and 2001, the LLNL scientists announced the discovery of elements 114 and 116, respectively. In 2004, the Livermore-Dubna team observed elements 113 and 115. Also in 1999, researchers at LLNL reported synthesizing element 118, but, in 2001, they retracted their claim when subsequent experiments failed to confirm the discovery.

Livermore scientists team with Russia to discover element 118