ScienceSeptember 1, 2026

xenon

ZEE-non

Definition

A colorless, odorless noble gas element used in high-purity liquid form in specialized detectors to sense particle interactions.

Etymology

Derived from the Greek word 'xenos', meaning 'stranger' or 'guest', as it was discovered by William Ramsay and Morris Travers in 1898 as a rare gas hidden in the atmosphere.

In the news

In the LZ experiment, liquid xenon acts as the sensitive medium that light and electrons react within when struck by potential dark matter particles.

New Detection In Dark Matter Experiment Has Physicists Excited – Is It An Unexpected And Rare Background Or The First Evidence Of Dark Matter?

Read the full article ↗

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