Helium

Extracted Attributes

• Symbol

  He

• Phase at STP

  Gas

• Atomic Number

  2

• Boiling Point

  -268.9 °C (4.21 K)

• Discovery Source

  Solar spectrum (1868)

• Terrestrial Source

  Radioactive decay of Uranium and Thorium

• Abundance in Universe

  24% of total elemental mass

• Concentration in Atmosphere

  5.2 ppm by volume

Timeline

• Helium is first detected as an unknown yellow spectral line in sunlight during a solar eclipse by astronomers including Georges Rayet and Jules Janssen. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1868-08-18

• Sir William Ramsay formally discovers helium on Earth by treating the mineral cleveite with mineral acids. (Source: Britannica)

  1895-03-26

• Large reserves of helium are discovered in natural gas fields in the United States, which becomes the world's leading supplier. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1903-01-01

• A severe supply shock in helium occurs due to disruptions in Qatar's natural gas infrastructure and conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. (Source: Document afebcfa9-a3b0-45e0-a3b3-266bc5fd8267)

  2024-01-01

Helium

Helium (from Ancient Greek: ἥλιος, romanized: helios, lit. 'sun') is a chemical element; it has symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is the lowest among all the elements, and it does not have a melting point at standard pressures. It is the second-lightest and second-most abundant element in the observable universe, after hydrogen. It is present at about 24% of the total elemental mass, which is more than 12 times the mass of all the heavier elements combined. Its abundance is similar to this in both the Sun and Jupiter, because of the very high nuclear binding energy (per nucleon) of helium-4 with respect to the next three elements after helium. This helium-4 binding energy also accounts for why it is a product of both nuclear fusion and radioactive decay. The most common isotope of helium in the universe is helium-4, the vast majority of which was formed during the Big Bang. Large amounts of new helium are created by nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars. Helium was first detected as an unknown, yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet, Captain C. T. Haig, Norman R. Pogson, and Lieutenant John Herschel, and was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer Jules Janssen. Janssen is often jointly credited with detecting the element, along with Norman Lockyer. Janssen recorded the helium spectral line during the solar eclipse of 1868, while Lockyer observed it from Britain. However, only Lockyer proposed that the line was due to a new element, which he named after the Sun. The formal discovery of the element was made in 1895 by chemists Sir William Ramsay, Per Teodor Cleve, and Nils Abraham Langlet, who found helium emanating from the uranium ore cleveite, which is no longer regarded as a separate mineral species, but as a variety of uraninite. In 1903, large reserves of helium were found in natural gas fields in parts of the United States, by far the largest supplier of the gas. Liquid helium is used in cryogenics (its largest single use, consuming about a quarter of production), and in the cooling of superconducting magnets, with its main commercial application in MRI scanners. Helium's other industrial uses—as a pressurizing and purge gas, as a protective atmosphere for arc welding, and in processes such as growing crystals to make silicon wafers—account for half of the gas produced. A small but well-known use is as a lifting gas in balloons and airships. As with any gas whose density differs from that of air, inhaling a small volume of helium temporarily changes the timbre and quality of the human voice. In scientific research, the behavior of the two fluid phases of helium-4 (helium I and helium II) is important to researchers studying quantum mechanics (in particular the property of superfluidity) and to those looking at the phenomena, such as superconductivity, produced in matter near absolute zero. On Earth, it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere. Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements (thorium and uranium, although there are other examples), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations as great as 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation. Terrestrial helium is a non-renewable resource because once released into the atmosphere, it promptly escapes into space. Its supply is thought to be rapidly diminishing. However, some studies suggest that helium produced deep in the Earth by radioactive decay can collect in natural gas reserves in larger-than-expected quantities, in some cases having been released by volcanic activity.

Web Search Results

• Helium | Definition, Properties, Uses, & Facts | Britannica

  helium (He), chemical element, inert gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table. The second lightest element (only hydrogen is lighter), helium is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that becomes liquid at −268.9 °C (−452 °F). The boiling and freezing points of helium are lower than those of any other known substance. Helium is the only element that cannot be solidified by sufficient cooling at normal atmospheric pressure; it is necessary to apply pressure of 25 atmospheres at a temperature of 1 K (−272 °C, or −458 °F) to convert it to its solid form. Element Properties [...] Helium was discovered in the gaseous atmosphere surrounding the Sun by the French astronomer Pierre Janssen, who detected a bright yellow line in the spectrum of the solar chromosphere during an eclipse in 1868; this line was initially assumed to represent the element sodium. That same year the English astronomer Joseph Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum that did not correspond to the known D1 and D2 lines of sodium, and so he named it the D3 line. Lockyer concluded that the D3 line was caused by an element in the Sun that was unknown on Earth; he and the chemist Edward Frankland used the Greek word for sun, hēlios, in naming the element. The British chemist Sir William Ramsay discovered the existence of helium on Earth in 1895. Ramsay obtained a sample of the [...] Helium-4 is unique in having two liquid forms. The normal liquid form is called helium I and exists at temperatures from its boiling point of 4.21 K (−268.9 °C) down to about 2.18 K (−271 °C). Below 2.18 K, thermal conductivity of helium-4 becomes more than 1,000 times greater than that of copper. This liquid form is called helium II to distinguish it from normal liquid helium I. Helium II exhibits the property called superfluidity: its viscosity, or resistance to flow, is so low that it has not been measured. This liquid spreads in a thin film over the surface of any substance it touches, and this film flows without friction even against the force of gravity. By contrast, the less plentiful helium-3 forms three distinguishable liquid phases of which two are superfluids. Superfluidity in

• Helium: An Endangered Element - American Chemical Society

  Liquid helium is unique among all elements in that it can reach ultra-cold temperatures, approaching absolute zero (-273.15°C). Research conducted at these low temperatures has led to discoveries in superconductivity that have led to many applications, including the Maglev high-speed train. Helium’s cooling properties are indispensable to scientific research and medical diagnostic equipment including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, NMR spectrometers and even the Large Hadron Collider. Helium is used to cool nuclear reactors and keeps rocket fuel cool during lift-off. Due to its unreactive nature, helium provides a protective atmosphere for making fiber optics, semiconductors, and in arc welding. [...] ACS 150th Anniversary Celebrate 150 years of chemistry and community #ACS150 Celebrate With Us › # Helium Menu ## What is Helium? Helium is named after the Greek word for the sun, helios, as it was first identified in the sun’s corona (the sun is composed of 25% helium). The second most abundant element in the universe, helium is scarce on Earth. A product of nuclear fusion and radioactive decay, it is the lightest noble gas, colorless, odorless, and inert with a low boiling point. ## Where is Helium from? On the Earth, most helium is a radioactive decay product of uranium and thorium. It is found under the Earth’s crust with other natural gases. Commercial helium is extracted from natural gas when the helium concentra on is above 0.3%. [...] 2. Responding to the U.S. Research Community’s Liquid Helium Crisis. American Physical Society Policy Reports Page. (accessed 2/25/2020) 3. Halperin, W.; Hartwig, W.; Hayes, S. Helium: An Irreplaceable Resource and Why We Must Conserve It, 2019. American Chemical Society Webinar Page. (accessed 2/25/2020) 4. Tullis, P. We’re Running Out of Helium, and Two Geologists Might Have a Fix. Bloomberg Business Week. (accessed 2/25/2020) 5. About Helium. Bureau of Land Management. h ps://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/helium/about-helium (accessed 2/25/2020) 6. U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, February 2019 pp 76-77. ### Download "Helium: A Gas Facing Extinction"

• Helium: Element Properties and Uses

  ## Introduction to the Element Helium is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gases group in the periodic table. It is the second lightest element in the universe, after hydrogen, and is primarily found in stars, including our sun. Helium is widely used in various fields due to its unique properties, including low boiling and melting points, which make it ideal for cryogenic and high-tech applications. ## Chemical Properties Description [...] ## Chemical Properties Description Helium is chemically inert due to its complete outer electron shell, making it extremely stable. As a noble gas, it does not readily form compounds with other elements under normal conditions. Its lack of reactivity makes it highly valuable in applications where chemical stability is crucial. Helium does not react with oxygen, nitrogen, or other gases at room temperature, and it remains non-flammable even in the presence of heat or fire. Helium is also colorless and odorless, which adds to its safety and convenience in various industrial and scientific applications. Although it is mostly chemically inert, at high pressures and temperatures, it can form compounds with elements like sodium, potassium, and lithium under controlled laboratory conditions.

• Helium - Element information, properties and uses | Periodic Table

  of the string, I am aware of the valuable resource that's about to be lost forever. Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but here on earth, it's rather rare. Most people guess that we extract helium from the air, but actually we dig it out of the ground. Helium can be found in certain parts of the world, notably in Texas, as a minor component in some sources of natural gas. The interesting thing is how this gas gets into the ground in the first place. Unlike virtually every other atom around us, each atom of helium has been individually formed after the formation of the earth. The helium is formed during the natural radioactive decay of elements such as uranium and thorium. These heavy elements were formed before the earth but they are not stable and very [...] or help underwater divers safely reach the depths of the oceans. At minus 269 degrees centigrade, liquid helium has the lowest boiling point of any substance. Because of this, it is used to provide the low temperatures needed for superconducting magnets, such as those used in most MRI scanners in hospitals. In many facilities where helium is used, it is captured and reused. If it isn't, it escapes into the air. But it doesn't simply accumulate in the atmosphere. Helium is so light that it can escape the pull of the earth's gravitational field and leave our planet forever. This is the fate of the helium in our balloons. Whereas it may be possible to reclaim and recycle other elements that we have used and discarded, when we waste helium, it is lost for good. In 100 years time, people [...] in the rock but liberated when the rock was dissolved away in the acid. Finally Lockyer's element had been discovered on earth, but it was no metal, rather an extremely unreactive gas. To this day, helium remains the only non-metal whose name ends with the suffix -ium, an ending otherwise exclusively reserved for metals. Aside from being used to fill balloons, both for our entertainment, and for more serious purposes, such as for weather balloons, helium is used in other applications which depend on its unique properties. Being so light, and yet totally chemically inert, helium can be mixed with oxygen in order to make breathing easier. This mixture, known as heliox, can help save new-born babies with breathing problems, or help underwater divers safely reach the depths of the

• Helium | Podcast | Chemistry World

  Helium-filled balloons Source: © Shutterstock Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but here on Earth, it's rather rare. Most people guess that we extract helium from the air, but actually we dig it out of the ground. Helium can be found in certain parts of the world, notably in Texas, as a minor component in some sources of natural gas. The interesting thing is how this gas gets into the ground in the first place. [...] Aside from being used to fill balloons, both for our entertainment and for more serious purposes, such as for weather balloons, helium is used in other applications which depend on its unique properties. Being so light, and yet totally chemically inert, helium can be mixed with oxygen in order to make breathing easier. This mixture, known as heliox, can help save new-born babies with breathing problems, or help underwater divers safely reach the depths of the oceans. At minus 269 degrees centigrade, liquid helium has the lowest boiling point of any substance. Because of this, it is used to provide the low temperatures needed for superconducting magnets, such as those used in most MRI scanners in hospitals. A photograph of an MRI scanner A photograph of an MRI scanner [...] In the 19th century, scientists turned their spectroscopes to the Sun and began to detect certain metals there, including sodium, magnesium, calcium and iron. In 1868 two astronomers, Janssen and Lockyer, independently noticed some very clear lines in the solar spectrum that did not match up to any known metals. While other astronomers of the time were unsure, Lockyer suggested these unidentified lines belonged to a new metal which he named Helium after the Greek personification of the Sun, Helios. For over 20 years, no sign of the metal helium was detected on Earth and Lockyer began to be mocked for his mythical element. However, in 1895 the chemist William Ramsay detected helium in the gas given out when a radioactive mineral of uranium was treated with acid. The helium formed from the

• Instance Of

  Q7889