Credits and sources
The Elements shows all 118 known chemical elements. Its numbers come from the reference sources below. Each photograph is used under the license its author chose, and is listed with its title on Wikimedia Commons, its author, its license and its source page, where anyone can get it free under that license. Photos are resized, and may be cropped to fit the frame; nothing else in them is changed. Each remains under its original license.
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Data sources
NIST Standard Reference Data
Some values on this screen come from two Standard Reference Data products of NIST, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, which NIST publishes under copyright. They are cited here as NIST asks.
- NIST Atomic Spectra Database (SRD 78), version 5.12. The ground-state electron configurations (hydrogen to hassium), the first ionization energies (hydrogen to lawrencium), and the emission lines drawn in each cell: up to 40 visible lines, 380 to 750 nm in air, for each neutral atom and singly charged ion, rescaled so the brightest line in each spectrum is 1. Retrieved 15 September 2026.
Kramida, A., Ralchenko, Yu., Reader, J. and NIST ASD Team (2024). NIST Atomic Spectra Database (version 5.12), [Online]. Available: https://physics.nist.gov/asd [9/15/2026]. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18434/T4W30F
NIST Standard Reference Data (SRD); ©Copyright 1979–2025 by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the United States of America. All rights reserved.
- NIST Chemistry WebBook (SRD 69). The densities of neon, krypton and xenon gas at 0 °C and 1 atm, used to turn the U.S. Geological Survey's production volumes into tonnes. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
Eric W. Lemmon, Ian H. Bell, Marcia L. Huber, and Mark O. McLinden, "Thermophysical Properties of Fluid Systems" in NIST Chemistry WebBook, NIST Standard Reference Database Number 69, Eds. P.J. Linstrom and W.G. Mallard, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg MD, 20899, https://doi.org/10.18434/T4D303, (retrieved September 30, 2026).
NIST Standard Reference Data (SRD); ©Copyright 2026 by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the United States of America. All rights reserved.
Copyright protection on this compilation of data has been secured by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce on behalf of the United States in the United States and all countries that are parties to the Universal Copyright Convention, pursuant to Section 290(e) of Title 15 of the United States Code.
NIST is named here as the source of these values, nothing more: naming it does not mean that NIST endorses or certifies this screen or anything on it.
Photographs
| # | Element | Photo | What it shows | Title on Commons | Author | License | Source |
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