When tested in an environment very much like the early universe, a primordial molecule called helium hydride behaved in ...

To try and tease apart the stellar origin story, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, ...

Helium hydride’s origin also marked the beginning of a chain reaction that led to the formation of molecular hydrogen (H2), ...

In a monumental breakthrough, scientists have recreated the universe’s first molecule, helium hydride (HeH⁺), solving a ...

In this planetary nebula, SOFIA detected helium hydride, a combination of helium (red) and hydrogen (blue), which was the first type of molecule to ever form in the early universe.

Interlune says it's struck a deal with Astrolab to send a camera to the moon to estimate how much helium-3 is present in ...

Astronomers have finally found the very first molecule to ever form in the universe. The helium hydride ion (HeH+) has long been a key theoretical part of how the chemistry of the cosmos kicked ...

Therefore, it is not surprising that about 100,000 years after the Big Bang, the first molecule to form was a curious interaction between a helium atom and a positive hydrogen ion.

Thus, the first chemical bonds were formed. The new compound of helium and hydrogen was called helium hydride or helonium (HeH +), the very first molecule (of any sustained abundance) in the universe.

American Institute of Physics image: Schematic illustration of the alignment, induced by a 160 picosecond laser pulse (red), of an iodine molecule (purple) inside a helium droplet (blue).

Finally, Voigtsberger and Dörner report that one variant of the He 3 molecule behaves in an unusual way: normal helium atoms consist of two protons and two neutrons.

Helium hydride ion, the first molecule that formed almost 14 billion years ago, was detected by NASA's flying observatory SOFIA towards a planetary nebula.