Heaviest common substance?

Question

I'm writing a story that includes a new substance arriving on earth from outer space. This substance is supposed to be heavier than any known substance on earth - but I need a commonly know very heavy substance for comparison. Is lead the heaviest commonly known substance? Or are there other commonly known substances that are heavier?

Answer 1

maladium

Answer 2

The heaviest substance that exists is iridium.

Every element above is heavier per atom, but lighter per volume, so iridium is the heaviest element that can exist, regardless of the new, super-heavy transuranic elements that have been created in the laboratory, but that don't exist in nature.

Answer 3

lead is pretty heavy however tungsten (the stuff that light bulb filaments are made of) is heavier. and plutonium is even heavier. Much much heavier.

Answer 4

uranium is very heavy, much more than lead.  they use non-radioactive uranium in the military when they want a really heavy bullet.

Answer 5

The heaviest common substance that comes to mind would most likely be lead. It's a fairly heavy metal and is also one of the more common elements on Earth.

Answer 6

you have been getting a lot of strange answers.

Here are the actual numbers for density of metals.

Osmium 22.61 gm/cm3

Iridium 22.42  

platinum  21.4

plutonium  19.8

tungsten  19.6

gold  19.32

uranium  18.9

mercury  13.55

lead  11.36

Silver   10.49