Helium's Unwelcome Exit: What Losing a Noble Gas Reveals About Exoplanets' Fates The discovery of helium being stripped from an exoplanet's atmosphere has raised new questions about the long term stability of celestial bodies beyond our solar system.
The finding, published in Nature, provides insight into the complex dynamics that govern planetary atmospheres.
While it is not unprecedented for planets to lose their original atmospheric envelopes – Earth, Venus, and Mars have all undergone this process over billions of years – the rate at which helium is being stripped from exoplanet LHS 1140's atmosphere suggests a more rapid process.