Helium

On August 20, an x-ray instrument on the ISS caught a bright x-ray burst from a pulsar thousands of light-years away, which released as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in 10 days. Now a NASA team has outlined what they believe caused it.

NASA astronomers have managed to probe the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b, a planet unlike any in our solar system. It marks the first time for this kind of world, and could be a step towards identifying potentially habitable planets.

Astronomers have finally found the very first molecule to ever form in the universe. The helium hydride ion (HeH+) has long been a key theoretical part of how the chemistry of the cosmos kicked off. Now the first unambiguous evidence of the molecule in a planetary nebula has been found​.

​​An international team of astronomers has discovered that helium atoms are causing the atmosphere of a "warm-Neptune" exoplanet to expand like a party balloon before escaping into the cold expanse of space.

The Sun was far more active in its early years, but we only really know this from studying other similar stars. Now, researchers have found the fingerprints of this active young Sun in tiny, bright blue crystals preserved in meteorites from a collection at Chicago’s Field Museum.

An international team of astronomers has made the first-ever detection of helium in the atmosphere of an extrasolar world. The new technique used to make the discovery could pave the way for scientists hoping to reveal the atmospheres of distant Earth-sized exoplanets.

Eighty-five percent of all matter is dark matter, a theoretical substance that doesn’t interact with ordinary matter and has so far eluded our best efforts to directly detect it. Now physicists have proposed a new way to find dark matter using a huge tub of helium in a superfluid state.

HGST has unveiled the Ultrastar He12, its latest helium-based hard drive. Cramming 12 TB of storage space into the standard 3.5-in form factor, the new drive is also faster, more energy efficient and more stable, to help businesses and data centers manage ever-increasing loads of data.​

When most people think of helium, they think of party balloons and funny voices, but the gas has far more important applications in medicine and electronics. Unfortunately, the world has been in the grips of a global shortage. Now, a research team has discovered a massive reserve in East Africa.

A team of scientists led by Diveena Danabalan of Durham University conducted a new study that indicates that there may be vast new sources of helium in the western mountain regions of North America.

Deep sea diving is a complex operation that's incredibly wasteful when it comes to the helium/oxygen gas mixture that the divers breathe. That's why US Navy scientists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City have developed a new prototype deep-diving system that goes easy on the helium.

Have you ever wondered how many helium-filled balloons it would take to lift you up and let you fly among the clouds? Extreme sports enthusiast Erik Roner recently found out. Roner attached 90 helium-filled balloons to a sun lounger and rose to 8,000 ft (2,438 m).