On 7 December 1995, the NASA Galileo probe provided in situ measurements of the helium abundance in the atmosphere of Jupiter. A Jamin interferometer measured the refractive index of the jovian atmosphere in the pressure region from 2 to 14 bars. These measurements indicate that the atmospheric helium mole fraction is 0.136 +/- 0.004. The corresponding helium mass fraction is slightly below the presolar value, which suggests that separation of helium from hydrogen in Jupiter's interior is only in its early stages.
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Zahn et al. (1996) studied this question.
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