During festivals or birthday parties, you may have seen balloons that float in the air. If you release their string from your hands, they will slowly rise up in the air and disappear. What makes them float in the air?
It is the element Helium. Helium is one of the lightest gaseous elements in the periodic table. It is also one of the least dense elements. These qualities make helium an ideal element for lifting things such as weather balloons, or party balloons.
There is something really curious about the discovery of this element. This is the only element which was discovered in space, before its presence was found on earth! It was first detected as an unknown yellow spectral line in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet, Captain C. T. Haig, Norman R. Pogson, and Lieutenant John Herschel. It was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer Jules Janssen.
If you have gone scuba diving, helium would have certainly helped you. Helium is used in specialized ‘breathing mixtures’ of gases for deep-sea diving because it is non-toxic, and can be easily compressed. Its atomic number is two and the symbol is He.
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