Why does the Xenon gas disappear from the atmosphere?

Xenon, the second heaviest gas in inert gases, seems to have disappeared from the atmosphere, but German geologists believe they can find out where the gas is.

Scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature. Earth's atmosphere is less xenon gas than meteorites of the same type of rock that make up the earth. This makes some scientists think that xenon gas has been hidden in glaciers, minerals or in the core of the earth.

Hans Keppler and Svyatoslav Shcheka, two geophysicists at the University of Bayreuth, Germany are seeking answers through studying the minerals on earth. They argue that xenon gas can 'hide' in magnesium silicate perovskite - an element of the earth's lower crust.

They sought to decompose xenon and argon in perovskite minerals at temperatures exceeding 1,600 degrees Celsius and under pressure of 250,000 times the sea pressure (the same conditions as those at the lower crust of the Fruit). land). However, they did not find xenon gas.

Keppler and Shcheva hypothesize that argon gas and other inert gases hide in perovskite, but xenon gas has disappeared into the air. The ratio of xenon, kripton and argon in air is equivalent to their ratio in perovskite compounds. This explains why light isotopes of Xenon are more easily dissolved in the atmosphere than heavy isotopes. For more than 1 billion years, xenon will melt into space.

However, many scientists opposed this theory. Chrystele Sanloup, a geologist at Pierre and Marie Curie, said that this hypothesis does not fully explain all the phenomena of xenon gas surplus in the air as well as the release of xenon gas. from the decay of uranium and plutonium in stone.

Sanloup believes that if this explanation is true for Earth, it may be true for Mars, where xenon gas is also disappearing.