English astronomer who studied the Sun. He was particularly interested in the solar spectrum, which he pioneered independently of William Huggins and Young. With a prism, he also studied solar prominences. He concluded that the line reported to him by Janssen belonged to a new element not found on Earth, which he named helium, the Greek word for Sun. Helium was later found in the lab on Earth by William Ramsay. Lockyer founded the British journal of science Nature in 1869.

Additional biographies: Bonn