hassium (Hs), an artificially produced element belonging to the transuranium group, atomic number 108. It was synthesized and identified in 1984 by West German researchers at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung [GSI]) in Darmstadt. On the basis of its position in the periodic table of the elements, it is expected to have chemical properties similar to those of osmium.
The GSI research team, led by Peter Armbruster, produced an isotope of hassium in a fusion reaction by irradiating lead-208 with ions of iron-58. The isotope, which has a mass number of 265, is exceedingly unstable and has a half-life of only 2 milliseconds. Experiments conducted by A.G. Demin and other researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, U.S.S.R., suggested the existence of two more isotopes of hassium with mass numbers of 263 and 264.