Earth’s core could contain helium from the early solar system. The noble gas tucks into gaps in iron crystals under high pressure and temperature.

The discovery that helium and iron can mix at the temperatures and pressures found at the center of Earth could settle a long ...

The discovery that inert helium can form bonds with iron may reshape our understanding of Earth’s history. Researchers from ...

Earth appears to be a chill blue planet, but deep down, it’s really a metalhead. Its outer core is mostly molten iron (and ...

Researchers from Japan and Taiwan reveal for the first time that helium, usually considered chemically inert, can bond with iron under high pressures. They used a laser-heated diamond anvil cell to ...

The surprise discovery that one of the lightest elements in the Universe can bind to iron under high pressure to form iron ...

These results suggest that similar reactions between helium and iron may have occurred within Earth’s core shortly after its formation, trapping much of the primordial helium-3 in the material that ...

Iron can form compounds with helium at pressures as low as 5GPa – about 50,000 atmospheres – researchers in Japan report.

Whereas helium-4 is a common product of the decay of radioactive elements, helium-3 comes almost entirely from the initial cloud of dust and gas that formed the solar system. This primordial ...