Discovered : by Sir William Ramsay in London, and independently by P.T. Cleve and N.A. Langlet in Uppsala, Sweden in 1895
Origin : The name is derived from the Greek ‘helios’, sun
Description :
A colourless, odourless gas that is totally unreactive. It is extracted from natural gas wells, some of which contain gas that is 7% helium. It is used in deep sea diving for balloons and, as liquid helium , for low temperature research. The Earth’s atmosphere contains 5 parts per million by volume, totalling 400 million tonnes, but it is not worth extracting it from this source at present.
Image :
Solar flares. Click here to see larger version of this image.
