Noble gas to be retained. Neon, argon, krypton, and xenon also form clathrate hydrates, where the noble gas is trapped in ice. Noble gases can form endohedral fullerene compounds, in which the noble gas atom is trapped inside a fullerene molecule. In 1993, it was discovered that when , a spherical molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms, is exposed to noble gases at high pressure, complexes such as can be formed (the "@" notation indicates He is contained inside but not covalently bound to it). As of 2008, endohedral complexes with helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon have been obtained. These compounds
Noble gas numbers increase. Helium is the most common element in the universe after hydrogen, with a mass fraction of about 24%. Most of the helium in the universe was formed during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but the amount of helium is steadily increasing due to the fusion of hydrogen in stellar nucleosynthesis (and, to a very slight degree, the alpha decay of heavy elements). Abundances on Earth follow different trends; for example, helium is only the third most abundant noble gas in the atmosphere. The reason is that there is no primordial helium in the atmosphere; due to the small mass of