A new element is all set to become part of the periodic table. An international team of physicists and chemists led by researchers at Germany's GSI laboratory has created the atoms of element 117.

The atoms of the new element are super-heavy and 40% heavier than an atom of lead. Professor David Hinde, Director of the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility, said, "Making element 117 is at the absolute boundary of what is possible right now".

Researchers said the element 117 has not been found in nature till date and can be made by fusing together the nuclei of smaller atoms that combine to come up with the right number of protons.

Though it is an exciting creation, committee that defines the periodic table, IUPAC, has refused to accept the creation till the time is no independent corroboration. Hinde affirmed that they have been able to find four atoms of the same element 117.

He thinks the finding would be enough to make the element to get official recognition. There are 92 naturally occurring elements in the periodic table ranging in weight. Elements that are beyond atomic number 92 have been created artificially.

To create the four atoms, researchers have fired more than 10 billion rare calcium-48 nuclei made of 20 protons and 28 neutrons were fired at a target made of the even rarer isotope, berkelium-249, having 97 protons. Element 188 has already been created and the team has its sights on elements 119 and 120.