Rocky exoplanet in habitable zone shows it can hold onto an atmosphere

Astronomers detected helium escaping from LHS 1140 b, a rocky super‑Earth in the habitable zone of a cool red dwarf about 48 light‑years away, marking the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere on a rocky world outside our solar system. Using the WINERED spectrograph during a transit, they observed a helium absorption signal for LHS 1140 b (but not for its closer neighbor LHS 1140 c), implying a retained upper atmosphere despite stellar radiation. The finding, published in Science, suggests some rocky planets around red dwarfs can hang onto atmospheres for billions of years, though it does not confirm habitability or the full atmospheric composition; future observations will seek other gases and features like oceans to assess potential habitability.