The most interesting fact about neon is that it has a very narrow temperature range to exist in the liquid phase. Neon present in the earth’s atmosphere generally exists in a gaseous state. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert noble gas, though it gives off a bright red-orange colored light when applied inside a discharge tube, under normal voltages and currents. However, a neon balloon would escape the atmosphere a little bit slower than that of helium. Therefore, it can rise above other gases in the atmosphere and escape from it. Neon is monoatomic in nature, due to which it is lighter than the other diatomic gas molecules in the air. During the carbon-burning process, two atoms of carbon fuse together under very high temperature and pressure conditions to form Neon, along with helium nuclei. Despite the high voltages involved, the globes are safe to touch.The key stable isotope of neon, _, is formed in stars during the carbon-burning process of stellar nucleosynthesis (the process of creating new atomic-nuclei from the pre-existing ones). Suddenly coloured streams of light filled the chamber as the neon's electrons were excited to high energy orbitals. It happened when neon gas escaped into a test chamber and came under the influence of a high voltage. The dramatic effect of these was discovered by Bill Parker at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971. However, in the rarified atmosphere of a gas discharge tube, species such as NeH + and other ions of transient existence have been observed. Neon is unreactive towards all known chemicals. It has many times the refrigerant capacity of helium, but it is much more expensive, so very little is used in this way. While liquid neon cannot achieve the temperature of liquid helium (-269☌), it can maintain a temperature of -246☌. There are other uses for neon, such as in diving equipment, lasers, high-voltage switching gear, and as a refrigerant for very low temperatures. They are ideal for advertising, are quite robust and can last for up to 20 years. The first neon sign was made by Georges Claude in 1910, and demonstrated in Paris. It is ideal for beacon lights because they will shine through fog. Most neon is used to make illuminated signs because of the intensity of its colour. Only a few tonnes of neon are produced to meet commercial needs each year, although more could be produced as there are 65 billion tonnes of it circling this planet. Today, neon is extracted from liquid air by fractional distillation and it comes off as a gas mixed with traces of helium, which are removed by absorption onto activated charcoal. They were amazed by its brilliant red light. When they put a sample into their atomic spectrometer, its spectrum immediately confirmed it as a new element. They allowed solid argon, surrounded by liquid air, to evaporate slowly under reduced pressure and collected the gas that came off first. In 1898, at University College London (UCL), William Ramsay and Morris Travers were looking for a lighter gas that would fill a gap above argon in the periodic table. He observed that a stream of neon atoms exposed to a magnetic field gave two beams, and concluded that some neon atoms were heavier than others. A year later the British physicist J J Thompson found proof of their existence. In 1912, Frederick Soddy suggested isotopes as the only way to explain the products of radioactive decay. Neon was important in proving the existence of isotopes. These variations have yet to be explained. However, neon trapped in diamonds, and emitted by volcanoes, is mainly neon-20. For example, neon trapped in granite contains relatively more of the heavier isotopes neon-21 and neon-22. The ratio of these trapped in minerals of the Earth's crust varies. To find any in the crust is unexpected for a noble gas, but in 1909 the French geologist Armand Gautie collected gas bubbling up from fumaroles near Vesuvius and hot springs near Naples, that contained neon. On Earth it is found in tiny quantities in the air (18 ppm), sea water (0.2 ppm), and in the crust (70 ppt). It is found both in our atmosphere and in Jupiter's. Neon is the fifth most common element in the universe, and is formed by helium and oxygen nuclei fusing.
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