Helium was discovered in sunlight before anyone found it on Earth
27 years
During a solar eclipse in 1868, astronomers detected an unfamiliar spectral line in sunlight. It was eventually associated with a previously unknown element named helium, after the Greek word for the Sun. Helium was isolated on Earth in 1895, roughly 27 years later. Scientists had identified evidence of an element in a distant star before obtaining it in a laboratory.