Unununium
. Element 111, also called unununium (Uuu), chemical element with atomic number 111. It is produced artificially by nuclear fusion (in which a chemical element with larger atoms is produced by fusing together smaller atoms from other elements). Each unununium atom has a very large nucleus, or central mass, containing positively charged particles called protons and neutral particles called neutrons (see Atom ). 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. Scientists gave unununium its temporary name according to a system that uses Latin prefixes for the atomic number (un = 1, un = 1, un = 1), followed by the suffix -ium. Unununium was first discovered in 1994 by scientists at the Heavy-Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany. Unununium has the atomic number 111, which means that each Uuu atom contains 111 protons in the nucleus. Scientists at the Heavy-Ion Research Labor...