A gas that appears in our atmosphere in trace amounts.
It was discovered in 1898 by Sir William Ramsay who isolated it using fractional distilation. He named it with the greek word xenos, which means strange one.
In 1962 Neil Bartlett made the first noble gas compound using xenon and platinum hexafluoride. Of the noble gases, only xenon and krypton have been made to form compounds.
As a monatonic molecule xenon is used in electrical discharge tubes to produce light. Xenon produces a strong white light, and is used in strobe lights. A mixture of xenon and krypton is used in flashbulbs.