• Hydrogen has incredible properties that for many are mysterious and often misunderstood.
• Hydrogen combines with Oxygen to form electricity or fire.
• When you burn Hydrogen, you get water.
• Hydrogen is the lightest element, yet it makes up 75% of the mass in the universe.
• It is the most plentiful element in the Universe, and the third most plentiful on Earth.

The Sun is, at present, about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium by mass (92.1% hydrogen and 7.8% helium by number of atoms); everything else ("metals") amounts to only 0.1%. This changes slowly over time as the Sun converts hydrogen to helium in its core. Hydrogen is estimated to make up more than 90% of all the atoms or three quarters of the mass of the universe. This element is found in the stars, and plays an important part in powering the universe through both the proton-proton reaction and carbon-nitrogen cycle -- stellar hydrogen fusion processes that release massive amounts of energy by combining Hydrogen to form Helium.

Although pure Hydrogen is a gas we find very little of it in our atmosphere. Hydrogen gas is so light that uncombined Hydrogen will gain enough velocity from collisions with other gases that they will quickly be ejected from the atmosphere. On earth, hydrogen occurs chiefly in combination with oxygen in water, but it is also present in organic matter such as living plants, petroleum, coal, etc. It is present as the free element in the atmosphere, but only to the extent of less than 1 ppm by volume. The lightest of all gases, hydrogen combines with other elements -- sometimes explosively -- to form compounds.

Production of hydrogen in the U.S. alone now amounts to about 3 billion cubic feet per year. Hydrogen is prepared by steam on heated carbon,decomposition of certain hydrocarbons with heat, action of sodium or potassium hydroxide on aluminum electrolysis of water, or displacement from acids by certain metals.
Liquid hydrogen is important in cryogenics and in the study of superconductivity, as its melting point is only 20 degrees above absolute zero.

We start our journey through the solar system at the center. Here we find a gigantic ball of gas so massive that the immense pressure has ignited a fusion reaction. It is an average-sized yellow star known as the Sun. Here in this cosmic furnace, hydrogen atoms under unimaginable pressures are being fused into helium atoms, releasing a tremendous amount of energy. Scientists believe that this reaction has been taking place for almost 5 billion years, and will likely continue for another 5 billion years. At that time, the Sun's hydrogen supply will have been depleted, and heavier elements will begin to fuse. This will cause the star to swell to the size of a red giant, consuming most if the inner planets in the process. Eventually the Sun will end its life as a cold lightless body known as a black dwarf.

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