Neon
. Neon, symbol Ne, colorless, odorless, nonreactive gaseous element that makes up a tiny fraction of Earth's atmosphere . A member of group 18 (or VIIIa) of the periodic table , neon is one of the noble gases . The atomic number of neon—that is, the number of protons in the nucleus of a neon atom—is 10. British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers first separated neon from other noble gases in 1898. Neon and the other noble gases do not normally form compounds with other elements. During the past few decades chemists have managed to induce several of the noble gases to form compounds with other extremely reactive elements, such as fluorine, but neon and helium have so far resisted these efforts. Neon melts at -248.59°C (-415.46°F), boils at -246.08°C (-410.94°F), and has a specific gravity of 0.8999 at 0°C (32°F). The atomic weight of neon is 20.18. Stars much more massive than the Sun produce neon during the later stages of nuclear fusion. The abundance of neon on Earth