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

• 01A study published in Nature reported observations of helium being lost from the atmosphere of the exoplanet LHS 1140b.
• 02LHS 1140b orbits the red dwarf star LHS 1140 at a distance of approximately 50 light-years.
• 03LHS 1140b has a mass of about 5.5 Earth masses and a radius 1.7 times that of Earth.
• 04LHS 1140b completes an orbit around its star in nearly 25 days.
• 05Researchers used near-infrared imaging hardware at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert to detect helium.
• 06Helium signals were detected before and after the transit of LHS 1140b but were not apparent during the transit of LHS 1140c.
• 07The helium signal extended well beyond the planet's radius, suggesting the presence of leading and trailing tails of helium.
• 08X-ray observations from the XMM-Newton satellite confirmed the star emits high-energy radiation capable of driving atmospheric escape.
• 09The estimated rate of helium escape is approximately 100,000 kilograms per second.
• 10At the current escape rate, it would take a duration equivalent to the system's age to remove an atmosphere initially comprising 1.5 percent of the planet's mass.
• 11Follow-up observations conducted one year later did not detect helium, placing the signal below the detection limit.

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Researchers detected helium escaping from the exoplanet LHS 1140b at a rate of approximately 100,000 kilograms per second, driven by high-energy radiation from its host star. Observations using near-infrared imaging revealed helium tails extending beyond the planet's radius, indicating active atmospheric loss. While the helium signal was not detected in follow-up observations a year later, the initial findings suggest the planet is losing a significant portion of its atmospheric mass over time.