We've seen helium baked off a rocky exoplanet's atmosphere

Astronomers have observed helium escaping from a rocky exoplanet's atmosphere—a direct measurement of atmospheric loss on a distant world. The exoplanet orbits LHS 1140, a star about fifty light-years away, and is losing helium to space through intense radiation. Ars Technica reports that by measuring the escape rate, researchers can infer what the planet's remaining atmosphere contains and how similar worlds might have evolved over billions of years.

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