THE Earth鈥檚 core doesn鈥檛 hold the answer to the intriguing 鈥渕issing xenon鈥�
problem, say scientists at the University of California at Berkeley.
Geologists have long wondered why the Earth has less xenon than meteorites.
Rocky meteorites and planets normally have similar proportions of heavy inert
gases. 杏吧原创s speculated that xenon, which becomes metallic at high
pressures, might be hiding in the Earth鈥檚 core, bound to the iron there.
However, new research reported in Science (vol 277, p 930) shows
that xenon cannot form alloys with iron, even at huge pressures and
temperatures. 鈥淲e鈥檒l have to come up with other scenarios that would explain
this,鈥� says Raymond Jeanloz, one of the research team.
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