Discovery and properties of hydrogen in a nutshell

Hydrogen is a chemical element represented by the symbol "H" and, as the first element in the periodic table, is characterized by the atomic number 1. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas (H2) first discovered during the 16th century by the Swiss alchemist T. Von Hohenheim (also known as Paracelsus) and named in 1783 by the French chemist A. Lavoisier after its property to "generate water" when burning. With an atomic mass of 1.00794 g/mol, hydrogen is the lightest element. It is composed of a single negatively-charged electron and a positively-charged nucleus typically consisting only of a single proton. Hydrogen is the most abundant of the chemical elements, constituting roughly 75% of the universe's elemental mass. While most stars are mainly composed of hydrogen in its plasma state, elemental hydrogen is indeed relatively rare on Earth.

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