New type of nuclear fission discovered

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-nuclear-fission.html

December 6, 2010 by Lin Edwards Enlarge

The experimental apparatus with which Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission in 1938. Image: Wikipedia.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nuclear fission, or the splitting of a heavy nucleus, usually results in symmetrical fragments of the same mass. Physicists attribute the few known examples of fission that is asymmetric to the formation in the resultant fragments of "magic" nuclei, which are extremely stable nuclei with all energy levels filled. Now, experiments at the European particle physics laboratory at the Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva in Switzerland have found the isotope mercury-180 splits asymmetrically into ruthenium-100 and krypton-80 rather than the expected zirconium-90.