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Special Helium issue - very light reading

Special Helium issue - very light reading

Harshal Chhaya
August 19, 2025

Yesterday’s Win11 search prompt was about the discovery of Helium on Aug. 18, 1868. What a fun way for people to learn about Helium and it's place in our world.

Millions (billions?) of people had the opportunity to learn about Helium, its discovery and its uses.

I love Microsoft using its power to cultivate curiosity.

During the total solar eclipse of Aug. 18, 1868, two astronomers, Pierre Jules César Janssen of France and J. Norman Lockyer of England, each independently discovered a new line in the Sun’s spectrum.

The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.

Lockyer thought it showed an undiscovered element, which he named helium. (In Greek mythology, Helios was the Sun god.)

Would Janssen have named it Gunturium?

They both discovered it independently - so they share the credit.

Helium (symbol: He) is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. It is the second-lightest and second-most abundant element in the observable universe, after hydrogen.