Geochemist duo offer new explanation for dearth of xenon in Earth's atmosphere
Thursday, October 11, 2012 - 11:01
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org)—The Earth's atmosphere holds far less xenon than chondritic meteorites, and researchers have sought for years to explain why. Now, geochemists Svyatoslav Shcheka and Hans Keppler of Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, have offered a new explanation of this phenomenon in their paper published in the journal Nature. In their article, they suggest that the xenon was lost to space during an early stage of the Earth's development.