Mondo Knows Facts
Helium was found in the Sun before Earth
A yellow line in the solar spectrum revealed an element nobody had isolated here During the solar eclipse of 1868, astronomers saw a yellow spectral line that matched no known element. Norman Lockyer and Edward Frankland named the substance helium after helios, the Greek word for the Sun. Terrestrial helium was finally extracted from a uranium mineral in 1895. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Argon was discovered in leftover airRamsay and Rayleigh removed the known gases from air and found a stubborn remainderFlame tests identify metals by colourHeating a salt makes its metal atoms emit a signature colourHelium remains liquid at absolute zero under normal pressureWeak interatomic forces and high quantum zero-point motion prevent helium from freezingThe periodic table organizes elements by proton countAtomic number dictates repeating chemical patterns across periods and groupsHydrogen makes up three quarters of all cosmic massAs the simplest chemical element hydrogen dominates stellar composition across spaceNoble gases have full outer electron shellsHelium, neon and argon rarely react because their electron shells are complete
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Tags: chemistry, elements, astronomy
Helium was found in the Sun before Earth: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A yellow line in the solar spectrum revealed an element nobody had isolated here. The figure is taken from Royal Society, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.