Krypton
chemical element with symbol Kr and atomic number 36; rare gas
Krypton (from Ancient Greek: κρυπτός, romanized: kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element; it has symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often used with other rare gases in fluorescent lamps. Krypton is chemically inert.
Krypton, like the other noble gases, is used in lighting and photography. Krypton light has many spectral lines, and krypton plasma is useful in bright, high-powered gas lasers (krypton ion and excimer lasers), each of which resonates and amplifies a single spectral line. Krypton fluoride also makes a useful laser medium. From 1960 to 1983, the official definition of the metre was based on the wavelength of one spectral line of krypton-86, because of the high power and relative ease of operation of krypton discharge tubes.
History
Krypton was discovered in Britain in 1898 by William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris Travers, an English chemist, in residue left from evaporating nearly all components of liquid air. Neon was discovered by a similar procedure by the same workers just a few weeks later. William Ramsay was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery of a series of noble gases, including krypton.
“Krypton” enters the record as chemical element with symbol Kr and atomic number 36; rare gas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Krypton, chemical and element can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q888. The Library of Congress control number is sh85073327. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1983, 1898 and 1904.
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This entry incorporates text from “Krypton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.