Intimate Tickles Thought You Might Be Interested

Published: Sat, 18 Aug 2018 05:00:00 +0000

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Helium Discovery Day celebrates the day that helium was first discovered. In the mid-19th century, scientists wanted to study the chemical composition of the sun, and thought that a solar eclipse was necessary to do so. In 1868, French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen went to Guntoor, India, to watch an eclipse in hopes of studying the sun’s composition. On August 18, using a prism, he found a yellow light that appeared to be sodium, but found out that it didn’t have the same wavelength as that element. It turns out what he had discovered was helium! Ironically, another scientist, Joseph Norman Lockyear, was also studying the sun and was able to view the solar prominences of the sun without an eclipse. Like Janssen, he also discovered helium, only a few months after his fellow scientist. For three decades the scientists were derided for their discoveries, and it was not until William Ramsay found helium inside of iron ore that the earlier discoveries were vindicated.

Besides being a gas used to fill balloons and make human voices sound ridiculous, helium is crucial for many things. It is a key component of stars, as well as gas giants, which are planets mainly made of gas. Helium is used for the flight of airships and balloons, as it provides buoyancy and is non-flammable. It is used in MRI scanners, rockets, solar telescopes, arc welding, and in determining the age of rocks with radioactive substances such as uranium. It is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, and is present in roughly 24% of the universe’s observable elemental mass.

Helium Discovery Day is being observed today! It has been observed annually on August 18th since 1868.