Prometheus is a legendary Greek hero. He is known as a trickster because he defied the gods and stole fire from them to give it to Man. Promethium is named after Prometheus. The reason is that the element glows in the dark like the fire of Prometheus!
The discovery of the element was the result of the hard work of four scientists: Charles D. Coryell, Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, and Harold G. Richter. They were trying to create fuel for an atomic bomb. The first identification and separation of element happened in 1945. They were able to extract promethium-147, an isotope of the element, from the by-products of uranium fission.
The element had been discovered, in the spectrum of HR 465, a star in a constellation called Andromedae, which lies 520 light-years away from us.
The glow-in-the-dark promethium is a highly radioactive element. The element is not easily found anywhere on Earth. Due to its rarity, the element is primarily used for research. However, scientists look at it as an element with a variety of possibilities. It could be used in medical devices, batteries, and in luminescent paint. The atomic number of promethium is 61, and it is represented as Pm.
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