Helium Was Discovered In Sunlight

In 1868, scientists discovered helium by analyzing the Sun’s spectrum, making it the only element on the periodic table first found somewhere other than Earth. French astronomer Pierre Janssen noticed a bright yellow spectral line during a solar eclipse, and British astronomer Norman Lockyer later identified it as evidence of a new element. Lockyer named it helium after Helios, the Greek god of the Sun. Scientists did not find helium on Earth until 1895, when Scottish chemist William Ramsay detected it in a uranium mineral.

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