The mass of an atom incorporates all its constituents and their interactions. The difference between the mass of an atom and the sum of its building blocks (the binding energy) is a manifestation of Einstein's famous relation E = mc(2). The binding energy determines the energy available for nuclear reactions and decays (and thus the creation of elements by stellar nucleosynthesis), and holds the key to the fundamental question of how heavy the elements can be. Superheavy elements have been observed in challenging production experiments, but our present knowledge of the binding energy of these nuclides is based only on the detection of their decay products. The reconstruction from extended decay chains introduces uncertainties that render the interpretation difficult. Here we report direct mass measurements of trans-uranium nuclides. Located at the farthest tip of the actinide species on the proton number-neutron number diagram, these nuclides represent the gateway to the predicted island of stability. In particular, we have determined the mass values of (252-254)No (atomic number 102) with the Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP. The uncertainties are of the order of 10 keV/c(2) (representing a relative precision of 0.05 p.p.m.), despite minute production rates of less than one atom per second. Our experiments advance direct mass measurements by ten atomic numbers with no loss in accuracy, and provide reliable anchor points en route to the island of stability.

The Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP at GSI Darmstadt allows accurate mass measurements of radionuclides, produced in fusion-evaporation reactions and separated by the velocity filter SHIP from the primary beam. Recently, the masses of the three nobelium isotopes 252-254No were determined. These are the first direct mass measurements of transuranium elements, which provide new anchor points in this region. The heavy nuclides were produced in cold-fusion reactions by irradiating a PbS target with a 48Ca beam, resulting in production rates of the nuclei of interest of about one atom per second. In combination with data from decay spectroscopy our results are used to perform a new atomic-mass evaluation in this region

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Penning traps are widely used for high-precision mass measurements of radionuclides related to nuclear astrophysics studies and the evolution of nuclear structure far away from stability. With the stopping of secondary beams in gas cells together with advanced ion-beam manipulation techniques their reach has been extended to rare isotopes of essentially all elements. The Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP at GSI Darmstadt has recently demonstrated that even highprecision mass measurements of transfermium elements can be performed despite low production rates of only about one particle per second. This important milestone opens new perspectives for the study of superheavy elements with ion traps.

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