These are elements like helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. They're called noble because they don't like to mix with other elements and form molecules.
In space weird stuff happens.
There are some crazy conditions out there that make these noble gases do things they would never do on Earth.
Like forming molecules with other elements. Molecules with noble gases.
One example is argonium, which is a molecule made of argon and hydrogen. This was discovered by accident in 2013 by some astronomers who were looking at the Crab Nebula, which is the remains of a star that exploded a long time ago.
They found argonium in the gas of the nebula, and it was the first time anyone had seen a naturally occurring noble gas molecule.
Another one is helium hydride, which is a molecule made of helium and hydrogen. This one is even more special, because it was the first type of molecule to form after the big bang, when the universe was still young and hot.
It took more than 30 years for astronomers to find this molecule in space, and they finally did it in 2019 by using a telescope on an airplane.
They found helium hydride in a planetary nebula called NGC 7027, which is a cloud of gas and dust that formed from an old star.
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