{"id":26428,"date":"2026-03-25T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=26428"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:50:40","slug":"helium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/helium\/","title":{"rendered":"Helium"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Helium Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s semiconductor and printed circuit board (PCB) industry is bracing for potential disruption in helium supplies after Iran\u2019s attack on Qatar\u2019s Ras Laffan LNG hub.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Helium<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>inert gas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and does not react with other substances or combust.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>discovered in 1868 by Jules Janssen and Norman Lockyer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> via a yellow spectral line during a solar eclipse.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Named after the Greek word \u2018Helios\u2019, meaning Sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Properties of Helium<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its atomic number is 2, making it the second <\/span><b>lightest element after hydrogen.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helium also has a <\/span><b>very low boiling point<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (-268.9\u00b0 C), allowing it to remain a gas even in super-cold environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>gas is non-toxic,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but cannot be breathed on its own, because it displaces the oxygen humans need for respiration.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the only element that cannot be solidified by sufficient cooling at normal atmospheric pressure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Largest global reserves:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> United States, Algeria, and Russia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s <\/span><b>Rajmahal Volcanic Basin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Jharkhand) is a significant helium reservoir trapped for billions of years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Applications of Helium<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Pressurizing Fuel Tank:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is used to pressurize fuel tanks, ensuring fuel flows to the rocket&#8217;s engines without interruption.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Cooling systems:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is used in cooling systems of rockets.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/business\/2026\/Mar\/24\/helium-shortage-looms-over-electronics-sector-amid-west-asia-tensions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Helium is an inert gas and does not react with other substances or combust. Read more about Helium, Properties, Applications, Global Reserves, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":94773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6356],"class_list":{"0":"post-26428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-helium","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94843,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26428\/revisions\/94843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}