Xenon is rare and exists as a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere to the extent of about one part in 20 million. This is about the same abundance as on Mars' atmosphere where Xenon is present at 0.08 ppm. The element is also found in gases emitted from some mineral springs.
Although the noble gases generally are considered inert, xenon actually does form a few chemical compounds with other elements. Examples include xenon hexafluoroplatinate, xenon fluorides, xenon oxyfluorides, and xenon oxides. The xenon oxides are highly explosive. The compound Xe2Sb2F1 is particularly noteworthy because it contains a Xe-Xe chemical bond, making it an example of a compound containing the longest element-element bond known to man.
Helical xenon flashtube -A flashtube, also called a flashlamp, is an electric arc lamp designed to produce extremely intense, incoherent, full-spectrum white light for very short durations.
One of xenon's uses is for ion drive propulsion. Nasa's Xenon Ion Drive engine fires a small amount of xenon ions at high speed (146,000 km/hr for the Deep Space 1 probe). The drive may propel spacecraft on deep space missions