The story
Named after English physicist Sir James Jeans (1877–1946), who is credited with calculating the rate of such atmospheric escape.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Jeans escape
Today it means: A type of atmospheric escape in which a light gas atom or molecule (typically a helium atom or hydrogen molecule) gains sufficient momentum through collision with other molecules to escape the atmosphere (and gravitational pull) of a planet. Full definition →