Noble gas After the risks caused by the flammability of hydrogen became apparent, it was replaced with helium in blimps and balloons. "Noble gas" is translated from the German noun , first used in 1898 by Hugo Erdmann to indicate their extremely low level of reactivity. The name makes an analogy to the term "noble metals", which also have low reactivity. The noble gases have also been referred to as "inert gases", but this label is deprecated as many noble gas compounds are now known. "Rare gases" is another term that was used, but this is also inaccurate because argon forms a
Noble gas or neon are known. The noble gases—including helium—can form stable molecular ions in the gas phase. The simplest is the helium hydride molecular ion, HeH, discovered in 1925. Because it is composed of the two most abundant elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium, it is believed to occur naturally in the interstellar medium, although it has not been detected yet. In addition to these ions, there are many known neutral excimers of the noble gases. These are compounds such as ArF and KrF that are stable only when in an excited electronic state; some of them find application in