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What is Einsteinium?
Context:
With a new study published in the journal Nature last week, for the first time, researchers have been able to characterise some of the properties of Einsteinium.
What is Einsteinium?
Named after Einstein, 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).
- Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952 as part of a test at a remote island location called Elugelab on the Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific.
Properties:
- It is difficult to create and is highly radioactive.
- The most common isotope of the element, einsteinium 253 has a half-life of 20 days.
- Einsteinium-254 is one of the more stable isotopes of the element that has a half-life of 276 days.
- The element is also not visible to the naked eye and after it was discovered, it took over nine years to manufacture enough of it so that it could be seen with the naked eye.
- 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.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- What is Einsteinium?
- Properties.
- When was it discovered?
- What is Ivy Mike?
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Sources: Indian Express.
