The element xenon is used in lamps that produce intense, extremely short flashes of light, such as stroboscopes and lights for high-speed photography. Xenon flash lamps are used to activate ruby lasers. Study of the xenon-129 content of meteorites casts light on the history of the solar system. More than a dozen radioactive xenon isotopes produced by fission of uranium and other nuclear reactions are known. The oxides XeO3 and XeO4, made indirectly in aqueous solution, are explosively unstable when dry.
Xenon is the least volatile of the noble gases obtainable from the air.
Numerous compounds of xenon have been prepared since the discovery of the noble-gas compounds in 1962. Although xenon itself is an unusually safe anesthetic, its compounds appear to be toxic.