As detective stories go, the Mystery of the Missing Xenon may not have the catchiest title. But scientists in Germany say they might have cracked this long-standing enigma.
The reason there’s less xenon in Earth’s atmosphere than expected, the researchers say, is because there was never much xenon dissolved in the planet’s depths to begin with. Had there been, it would have made its way over billions of years toward the surface, there to spew into the atmosphere.