ausenium and hesperium

{{Short description|Misidentified chemical elements}}

Ausenium (atomic symbol Ao) and Hesperium (atomic symbol Es) were the names initially assigned to the transuranic elements with atomic numbers 93 and 94, respectively. The discovery of the elements, now discredited, was made by Enrico Fermi and a team of scientists at the University of Rome in 1934.

Following the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, it was realized that "elements" found by Fermi were actually a mixture of barium, krypton, and other elements. The actual elements were discovered several years later, and assigned the names neptunium and plutonium. Already in 1934, Ida Noddack had presented alternative explanations for the experimental results of Fermi.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1002/ange.19340473707 | title = Über das Element 93 | year = 1934 | author = Noddack, Ida | journal = Angewandte Chemie | volume = 47 | pages = 653–655 | issue = 37| bibcode = 1934AngCh..47..653N }}

The element 93, ausenium, was named after a Greek name of Italy, Ausonia.{{cite journal | doi =10.1038/133898a0 | title =Possible Production of Elements of Atomic Number Higher than 92 | year =1934 | author =Fermi, E. | journal =Nature | volume =133 | pages =898–899 | bibcode=1934Natur.133..898F | issue =3372| doi-access =free }} The element 94, Hesperium, was named in Italian Esperio after Hesperia, a poetic name of Italy.{{cite journal | title = The Search for Transuranium Elements and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission | journal = Physics in Perspective | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | year = 2000 | doi = 10.1007/s000160050036 | pages = 48–62| first = Ruth Lewin | last = Sime|authorlink=Ruth Lewin Sime|bibcode = 2000PhP.....2...48S | s2cid = 117751813 }}

Fascist authorities wanted one of the elements to be named littorio after the Roman lictores who carried the fasces, a symbol appropriated by Fascism.