Maybe helium isn’t too ‘noble’ to react after all
Helium is a noble gas, meaning that it has been believed to be “too aloof” to react with the other elements on the periodic table. A new theoretical explanation, however, shows how helium may be...
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Team to launch balloon into polar vortex
WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS / CALTECH (US) — Scientists are poised to send a two-ton balloon-borne cosmic-ray experiment called Super-TIGER into the high-altitude polar vortex over Antarctica. The...
View ArticleHelium superfluid stays ‘weird’ in tiny droplets
Liquid helium, when cooled down nearly to absolute zero, exhibits unusual properties that scientists have struggled to understand: it creeps up walls and flows freely through impossibly small channels,...
View ArticleVolcanoes offer ‘time-lapse’ clues to early Earth
Samoan volcanoes have yielded evidence of the planet’s early formation still trapped inside the Earth. Known as hotspots, volcanic island chains such as Samoa can have ancient primordial signatures...
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Helium ‘fumes’ buy Messenger a bit more time
A NASA spacecraft circling Mercury will soon be running on fumes. This clever strategy helps squeeze a few more weeks of valuable science from a mission already nearly three years into overtime. After...
View ArticleCalifornia fault is leaking helium from deep Earth
Geologists were surprised to find helium-3 leaking along a 30-mile stretch of a fault zone in the Los Angeles Basin. The leak suggests the Newport-Inglewood fault is deeper than scientists previously...
View ArticleHelium from the Big Bang lingers in these hotspots
The Earth’s mantle—the layer between the crust and the outer core—is home to a primordial soup even older than the moon. Among the main ingredients is helium-3 (He-3), a vestige of the Big Bang and...
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How a tub of liquid helium could help detect dark matter
Researchers have developed a new strategy for directly detecting dark matter, the elusive material thought to account for the majority of matter in the universe. The strategy, which is designed to...
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Material with helium ‘veins’ paves way for fusion reactors
Researchers have discovered a method for making materials that could be useful in future fusion reactors. Fusion is the process that powers the sun, and harnessing it on Earth would provide unlimited...
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Helium rain probably falls inside Jupiter and Saturn
New experiments with lasers reveal evidence supporting the existence of helium rain inside planets composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, such as Jupiter and Saturn. Scientists made the prediction...
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