Hassium
. Hassium, symbol Hs, chemical element with atomic number 108. It is produced artificially by nuclear fusion (in which an element with larger atoms is produced by fusing together smaller atoms from other elements). Each hassium atom has a very large nucleus, or central mass, containing positively charged particles called protons and neutral particles called neutrons . The large number of particles in the nucleus makes the atom unstable and causes the atom to split apart into smaller components soon after it is created. In 1997 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry named element 108 hassium (Hs), which was previously called unniloctium, to honor the Heavy-Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany. Researchers at this laboratory discovered elements 107, 108, 109, 111, and 112. The name hassium is derived from the German state Hassia, which is where the research was performed. Hassium has the atomic number 108, which means that each Hs atom contains 108 protons in th