Born on August 18
The Eclipse That Led to Helium
A yellow line in sunlight.
Next: August 18, 2027
Where it comes from
This Story marks 18 August 1868, when a total eclipse of the Sun crossed India and astronomers turned a new instrument, the spectroscope, on the glowing prominences at the Sun's edge.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance. Popular accounts often say Janssen discovered helium that day, but historians point out that he never claimed a new element, and credit is still argued over. Helium was found on Earth only in 1895, when the chemist William Ramsay saw the same yellow line in gas from a uranium mineral.
Did you know
After the eclipse, Janssen worked out in India how to see the prominences without one; Lockyer found the same method in England, and their reports reached the French Academy of Sciences on the same day.
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Star sign
Leo · July 23 – August 22 · Fire sign
Warm, generous and made for the spotlight.