Journey to the center of the atom

This document presents 2 features of nuclei, first their amazing diversity in terms of structure, shape or stability and secondly the fact that we can create new heavy nuclei through collisions between lighter nuclei. Oganesson is now the heavier element created on earth it is made up of 118 protons and was produced in a particle accelerator at Dubna (Russia) through collisions between impinging ⁴⁸Ca ions on a californium target. The actual quest is to reach a predicted island of stability whose super-heavy elements would have an half-life of at least several years according to Oganessian, Y.. About half a dozen of accelerator facilities in the world are able to produce heavy nuclei. (A.C.)