Rare Helium-3 Gas Is Leaking Out of Earth’s Metallic Core

The New Study says that there’s a leakage in the Earth’s Metallic core and a primordial helium gas that was supposedly formed post big bang is leaking out of it.

The most common gas in this universe, called helium-3, was the first and only gas created shortly after the Big Bang explosion 13.8 billion years ago. One of these helium-3s would have combined with other particles of gas and dust in the solar nebula, which is a huge, rotating and collapsible cloud that is thought to have led to the creation of any solar system.

The discovery that the earth’s core may contain helium-3 water storage is further evidence that the Earth formed within the solar system’s nebula, not at its extremities or at the time of its collapse, researchers say.

Helium-3 “is a natural phenomenon, and an indication of the history of the Earth, that there is still a large amount of this isotope inside Earth,” lead study author Peter Olson, a geologist at the University of New Mexico, said.

What Is Helium-3?

Discovered in 1939, Helium-3 is a bright, stable helium with two protons and one neutron (most common isotope, helium-4, two protons and two neutrons opposite). With the exception of protium (normal hydrogen), helium-3 is the only stable isotope of any element that has more protons than neutrons.

Scientists then knew that about 4.4 pounds (2 pounds) of helium-3 escapes the Earth’s surface every year, especially near the ocean ridge system where tectonic plates meet.


But scientists were not sure how much helium-3 from the core was compared to the coat, and how much helium-3 was in the Earth’s crust.

A team of researchers depicted helium depletion during two key phases in Earth’s history: the planet’s early formation, while helium was accumulating, and after the formation of the moon, when our planet lost most of this gas.


Scientists think that the moon was formed when a massive object the size of Mars collided with the Earth some four billion years ago. The event would have melted the earth’s crust and caused much of the helium inside our planet to escape.

Read: When is the Last Working Day of Earth, Reason You Should Know Why?

Is There Any Helium-3 Gas Left In The Core?

But the Earth did not lose all of its helium-3 at that time. It still contains other rare gasses, which continue to flow out of the Earth.

The crust could be a good location for such a lake, “because there are no risks of major impact compared to other parts of the Earth’s system,” the researchers said that it also does not participate in tectonic plate cycling which emits helium gas.

Results Of The Observation

Researchers have combined the current leak level of helium-3 with models of helium isotope behavior.


The figures revealed that between 22 billion pounds (10 Teragrams) to 2 billion pounds (1 pentagram) of helium-3 hung in the center of the Earth – a very large number, indicating that the Earth is built on -and a solar label with a high gas content.

“The transition to the formation of the Earth and evolution involves a metal core like a leaky lake that provides the whole Earth with helium-3,” researchers said.

Read: How does the Earth’s Magnetic field affect Life on Earth?

Can We Believe The Observation Of This Result?

However, because these results are based on modeling, the results are not ironclad. The team had to make a lot of assumptions – for example that Earth took up helium-3 as it formed in the solar nebula, that helium entered the nucleus and that some helium left the core of the fabric.

This hypothesis, in addition to other uncertainties, including how long solar and nebulae lasted compared to the rate at which the Earth was formed, suggests that there may be less helium-3 at the core than it does, scientists say.

But researchers are hoping to find some clues that support their findings. For example, finding other nebula-created gasses, such as hydrogen, leaking on Earth from the same locations and at the same values as helium-3, could be a “smoking gun” that indicates the spine is a source, Olson said. “There are more secrets than guarantees.”


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