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Our Sun is the greatest source of heat and light in the entire Solar System, fusing hydrogen into helium in a nuclear chain reaction in its core. Because an atomic nucleus of helium is 0.7% lighter ...

In a feat of modern-day alchemy, atom tinkerers have fooled hydrogen atoms into accepting a helium atom as one of their own. The camouflaged atom behaves chemically like hydrogen, but has four times ...

Immediately after the Big Bang, before the first stars in the Universe ever formed, the Universe consisted of hydrogen (element #1), helium (element #2), and pretty much nothing else. Despite ...

Discovered in the 1800s in the solar spectrum, helium has been an element that has eluded humans for centuries. Despite being listed as one of the most abundant elements in the universe, this noble ...

First discovered in the corona surrounding the sun and later found in gases leaking from Mount Vesuvius, helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe. The second element on the Periodic ...

Hunting for (alpha,n) reactions: The experimental set-up in the ISAC-II hall at TRIUMF. (Courtesy: M Williams) New measurements by physicists from the University of Surrey in the UK have shed fresh ...