The Mystery of Element 115 and Its Alien Connection

Element 115, now officially named moscovium, gained notoriety long before its scientific discovery through the claims of Bob Lazar, who alleged in 1989 that he had worked at a secret government facility near Area 51 reverse-engineering alien spacecraft powered by the element. Lazar claimed it had unique gravitational properties that allowed advanced propulsion systems to bend space-time.

When moscovium was formally synthesized in 2003 and added to the periodic table in 2016, it bore little resemblance to Lazar's description. All known isotopes are highly radioactive and decay within milliseconds, making it physically impossible to store or use as fuel. Scientists flatly stated there is no connection between the discovered element and Lazar's UFO claims, though the story endures as a cultural touchstone in UFO lore.

In 1989 Bob Lazar claimed alien craft near Area 51 ran on a stable isotope of element 115. Chemists reached the same atomic number and nothing like the same substance: the Dubna and Livermore collaboration synthesized element 115 in 2003, and IUPAC named it moscovium on November 28, 2016 IUPAC. Those atoms decay within milliseconds, so scientists dismiss the fuel claim. The hunt moved past moscovium: Berkeley Lab spent 22 days in 2024 proving a titanium beam can fuse superheavy nuclei, the prerequisite for element 120, while RIKEN logs more than 200 days a year chasing element 119 Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Watch Berkeley's 88-Inch Cyclotron, where making element 120 could take ten times longer than element 116 did.