The “Toruń portrait” of Nicolaus Copernicus, c.1580
9 June 2023
Copernicium is a radioactive, artificially created, transuranic element with the atomic number 112 and the symbol Cn. Copernicium has a half-life of about thirty seconds and has no uses other than research. It is, of course, named for astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), who advanced the theory of a heliocentric solar system. The naming is in line with that of other artificially created elements, which tend to be named after scientists or for places where nuclear research is conducted.
Copernicium was first created in Darmstadt, Germany in 1996 at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (Center for Heavy Ion Research). It was officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2009, and at that time the Darmstadt researchers proposed the name. From their 14 July 2009 press release announcing the proposed name:
Element 112 shall be named “copernicium”
Proposed name honors astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
In honor of scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the discovering team around Professor Sigurd Hofmann suggested the name “copernicium” with the element symbol “Cp” for the new element 112.
IUPAC approved the name in 2010, but changed the symbol to Cn, as Cp had been used in the past to designate the element now known as lutetium, which had been known as casssiopeium.
Sources:
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung. Press release, 14 July 2009. Internet Archive.
Hofmann, S., et al. “The New Element 112.” Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei, 354.3, December 1996, 229–230. DOI: 10.1007/BF02769517.
Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements—Part 3—Rivalry of Scientists in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Foundations of Chemistry, 12 November 2022.
Image credit: anonymous painter, c.1580. District Museum in Toruń, Poland. Public domain image as a mechanical reproduction of a public domain work.