Page 192 - The Periodic Table Book

2
He Helium

2 2 2 State: Gas
Discovery: 1895
Noble Gases Forms Uses machine that smashes atoms together:

A particle accelerator is a
This sample of
helium is trapped
in a glass sphere. a glass sphere this one uses liquid helium to cool its parts.

Pure helium in

Large Hadron Collider,
CERN, Switzerland
Helium is a
transparent gas,
but it glows purple Helium-cooled
when electrified. MRI scanner

Saturn
Natural gas
often contains
some helium.

Saturn's atmosphere
is made up of clouds of
hydrogen and helium.
Gas flare rig

Helium is the second lightest element giant gas planets, such as Saturn. Being so
after hydrogen. This transparent gas was first light, however, helium is very rare on Earth: it
discovered in 1868 by Sir William Ramsay, a escapes from our atmosphere into space. It was
Scottish chemist. Today, we know that a quarter not until 1895 that chemists managed to collect
of all the atoms in the Universe are helium. It a sample of helium gas coming from uraninite, a
190 is one of the main gases in the atmospheres of radioactive uranium mineral. Today, helium is

190-191_Helium.indd 190 12/12/16 5:40 pm