Four new names have been added to the periodic table of elements, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced Thursday. Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson are now elements 113, 115, 117, and 118, respectively, on the official periodic table. The new elements were first synthesized between 2002, but only in December 2015 did IUPAC officially recognize the discoveries as chemical elements. The suggested names were then submitted by the scientists this June.
Nihonium, abbreviated Nh, was submitted by Japanese researchers and comes from 'Nihon,' the Japanese word for Japan. Moscovium (Mc) and Tennessine (Ts) were named by a team of scientists from Russia and the U.S., while Oganesson (Og) was named for nuclear physicist and prolific element discoverer, Yuri Oganessian, by the Russian team that discovered the element.