curium

Synthesized, radioactive, metallic element of the actinide series, atomic number 96, relative atomic mass 247. It is produced by bombarding plutonium or americium with neutrons. Its longest-lived isotope has a half-life of 1.7 × 10⁷ years.

Curium is used to generate heat and power in satellites or in remote places. Named in 1946 for Pierre and Marie Curie by Glenn Seaborg, it was first synthesized in 1944 by Seaborg at the University of California at Berkeley, by analogy with the corresponding lanthanide, gadolinium (see periodic table of the elements).