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.

has been formed because the iron and sulfur atoms are now chemically bonded together. The new substance is called a compound. Other compounds are made from different combinations of atoms ...

The team from the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) CataLight at the Universities of Ulm and Jena has now shown that 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.

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.

Oxygen in the air combined with impurities in the iron to produce carbon dioxide and other compounds that vented out the top of the furnace as gases. Enough heat was created by these reactions to keep ...