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Studies of the Earth's atmosphere have shown that more than 90% of xenon (Xe)is depleted compared with its abundance in chondritic meteorites. Thislong-standing missing Xe paradox has become the subject of considerableinterest and several models for a Xe reservoir have been proposed. Whether themissing Xe is hiding in the Earth's core has remained a long unansweredquestion. The key to address this issue lies in the reactivity of Xe with iron(Fe, the main constituent of the Earth's core), which has been denied byearlier studies. Here we report on the first evidence of the chemical reactionof Xe and Fe at the conditions of the Earth's core, predicted throughfirst-principles calculations and unbiased structure searching techniques. Wefind that Xe and Fe form a stable, inter-metallic compound of XeFe3, adopting aCu3Au-type face-centered cubic structure above 183 GPa and at 4470 K. As theresult of a Xe -> Fe charge transfer, Xe loses its chemical inertness byopening up the filled 5p electron shell and functioning as a 5p-like element,whilst Fe is unusually negatively charged, acting as an oxidant rather than areductant as usual. Our work establishes that the Earth's core is a naturalreservoir for Xe storage, and possibly provides the key to unlocking themissing Xe paradox.

Xenon Reacts with Iron at the Conditions of the Earth's Core