Copernicium - 112Cn: historical information
Element 112 (provisionally named copernicium, Cn) was discovered on 9th February 1996 at 22:37 at the GSI in Darmstadt, Germany. The identified isotope currently is the heaviest atom ever produced by man and has an atomic mass of 277, that is, 277 times heavier than hydrogen. The new element was produced by fusing a zinc atom with a lead atom. To achieve this, the zinc atom was accelerated to high energies by the heavy ion accelerator UNILAC at GSI and directed onto a lead target.