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 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 ...

The discovery that helium and iron can mix at the temperatures and pressures found at the center of Earth could settle a long-standing debate over how our planet formed.

For decades, scientists have puzzled over traces of primordial helium—a rare isotope known as ³He—escaping from volcanic rocks in places like Hawaii and Iceland. Unlike the more common ⁴He, which is ...

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

The diamond anvil crushed iron and helium together under conditions mimicking those inside the Earth, to create a new compound. These compounds remained stable when pressures were reduced.

The researchers discovered this compatibility by heating iron and helium to between 1,340 and 4,940 degrees Fahrenheit (727 to 2,727 degrees Celsius, or 1,000 to 3,000 kelvins) while compressing ...

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 ...

Scientists discover Earth may have huge quantities of helium trapped in its core after finding it can mix with iron under extreme heat and pressure. . | Credit: Yuri_Arcurs via Getty Images ...

But the core is mostly iron, and helium and iron typically don't mix. Now, in a new study, researchers at the lab of Kei Hirose, a planetary scientist at the University of Tokyo, and their ...