Helium

on
Helium
(Photo Credit: Periodictable.com)
Group: 18
Atomic Number: 2
Block: S
Relative Mass: 4

 Helium was actually simultaneously discovered in two different efforts in 1895. One of the scientists was Sir William Ramsay in London. The other discovers were as pair, Per Teodor Cleve and Nils Abraham Langlet, based in Sweden. It's name originates from the Greek word Helios which means sun. This makes sense for Helium's name as the sun's corona (The plasma around the star) was where the element was first detected - by Luigi Palmieri when he analysed some material after an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1881.

Helium is a colourless and odourless gas. It is placed on the periodic table on the top row and is placed into a group called noble gases. The Noble Gases are a group of elements which have shared properties such as; being odourless, non-reactive and are nonmetals. Helium is chemically inert (unreactive) and non toxic. Though due to its low relative mass, helium also has greater thermal conductivity, greater specific heat and sound speed being in its gas phase than any other gas... ...With exception to Hydrogen.

Most of the Helium in the universe is the form Helium-4. This form of helium was mostly made during the Big Bang. Though some of this form is continuously being made by nuclear fussion of hydrogen by stars. Helium is the second most abundant element of the universe, with Hydrogen being the first. Helium is present in around 24% of the total elemental mass.

When electricity is passed through this gas - it glows a pretty peach colour.

Helium and it Uses
  • Helium was used as a cooling medium for the Large Hadron Collider (LHD). In this case, a medium is a substance where energy such waves or electrons can pass through
  • Helium was used to cool the liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen which was use as power for the Apollo space vehicles
  • Due to Helium's low density, it is used to fill balloons! As well as airships. Airships used to be filled with hydrogen... But not since the Hindenburg disaster.
  • Helium is used as to provide a protected atmosphere for fibre orbit 
  • Helium-Neon lasers are used for barcode scanners
  • New Use - Helium-ion microscopes! They have a better resolution (the ability to see detail clearly) then the scanning electron microscope.
An Helium-ion Microscopic image with the normal scanning electron microscopic image (On the Right)
Photo credit: University of Alberta

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