The analysis of atomic spectra is of fundamental importance for our understanding of atomic structures. Until now,researchers were unable to examine heavy elements with optical spectroscopy because these elements carry out not occur in nature and cannot be artificially created in weighable amounts. However, scientists have now looked for the first time into the inner structure of heavy elements. For this they used short-lived nobelium atoms with a nuclear charge of Z=102, and which had been produced at the GSI accelerator facility.
Source: phys.org