Discovery of xenon

Xenon was discovered in July 1898 by the British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers at University College London. After finding krypton and neon in the residues of liquefied air, they continued fractionating the least volatile part and found a gas with a distinctive blue glow and its own spectral lines. They named it xenon from the Greek xenos, meaning stranger, since it was so unexpected and so rare, making up only a tiny fraction of the atmosphere. It is the heaviest stable noble gas. Xenon is used in high-intensity lamps, such as those in film projectors and car headlights, and in ion thrusters that propel spacecraft. It is also used as a general anaesthetic in some hospitals and as a gas for medical imaging.

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