Helium
- Latin name: Helium
- German name: Helium
- Symbol: He
- Atomic number: 2
- Period (row): 1
- Group (column): 18
- Element group: noble-gas
- Atomic mass: 4.0026
- Discovered in: 1895
Helium is named for the Greek god of the Sun, Helios. It was first detected as an unknown yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet, Captain C. T. Haig, Norman R. Pogson, and Lieutenant John Herschel, and was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer Jules Janssen.