The UNILAC Accelerator

Seen here is part of the UNILAC accelerator at Germany's Institute for Heavy Ion Research, in which collisions of magnesium ions with a curium target created hassium-270, a doubly magic isotope with an unusually long lifetime of 22 seconds.

Part of the UNILAC accelerator
Image credit: A. Zschau/GSI

Gray arrow  Read related information in the 15 December 2006 Physical Review Focus.