Scientists find oxygen in space

Scientists find oxygen in space

www.cbc.ca

An international team of researchers has discovered molecular oxygen in space, which appears to be surprisingly rare in the universe.

The oxygen molecule was found in a gas cloud called rho Oph A in the Ophiuchus constellation, about 500 light years from Earth.

The element's abundance is 1,000 times lower than can be explained by today's chemical models, according to the research team, which includes Canadian astronomers and scientists from Sweden, France and Finland.


JARGON
Molecules are structures composed of atoms.
Two atoms of the element oxygen form an oxygen molecule.
A light year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 9.461 trillion kilometres.


Their discovery and findings — made with the Swedish Odin space observatory satellite developed collaboratively by the countries and launched in 2001 to find the oxygen — are reported in the scientific journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

(visit the link for the full news article)

One step closer to prove that life exist in other place than earth.... Scientist found oxygen in space, again just proving what everyone knows.... Life could exist in other place than erath....

www.cbc.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

I read the article, but how exactly did they "see" the oxygen molecules. I do agree that it's possible for life to be on another planet, but I don't recall any telescopes or microscopes being powerful enough to see a molecule from 500 light years away.

Electromagnetic spectrum.

Originally posted by secret titan
I read the article, but how exactly did they "see" the oxygen molecules. I do agree that it's possible for life to be on another planet, but I don't recall any telescopes or microscopes being powerful enough to see a molecule from 500 light years away.

Well seems like they got creative, a brief explanation of the device used to locate oxygen can be found here.

Originally posted by secret titan
I read the article, but how exactly did they "see" the oxygen molecules. I do agree that it's possible for life to be on another planet, but I don't recall any telescopes or microscopes being powerful enough to see a molecule from 500 light years away.

They don't see the molecules, per se, they analyse the light spectrum from the cloud to determine what it is composed of.

So some astronaunt farted...so what.

Regards,
Maestro

Originally posted by secret titan
I read the article, but how exactly did they "see" the oxygen molecules. I do agree that it's possible for life to be on another planet, but I don't recall any telescopes or microscopes being powerful enough to see a molecule from 500 light years away.

They analyze the light to figure out what kind of "stuf" through which it's passed through. Different molecules, atoms, and gases will affect light in different ways that make it easy for scientists to know such things. It's the same technique used by mass spectrometers to determine the composition of an unknown substance, which is something used by many forensics labs around the US.

Although, actually, forensics labs don't typically have them--they use the ones owned by various universities because they're very expensive pieces of equipment.

Originally posted by Valombre

One step closer to prove that life exist in other place than earth.... Scientist found oxygen in space, again just proving what everyone knows.... Life could exist in other place than erath....

While life most likely exists in many places in the galaxy and universe,
finding trace amounts of Oxygen in a molecular gas cloud does not prove
the existence of life.

Firstly Oxygen is not the only requirement of life, and is not necessarily
a requirement for life in the first place.
Secondly it is highly doubtful that any life forms would have evolved in
space that breath that Oxygen.

Originally posted by maestro46
So some astronaunt farted...so what.

Regards,
Maestro

The oxygen was discovered in a gas cloud 500 light years away, thousands
of times farther away than any human has ever been.

Additionally, even if an Astronaut does pass gas, it would never make
it into space, as spacesuits are completely closed systems.

It is a naturally occurring phenomenon.

[edit on 5/4/2007 by iori_komei]

Originally posted by iori_komei

The oxygen was discovered in a gas cloud 500 light years away, thousands
of times farther away than any human has ever been.

Additionally, even if an Astronaut does pass gas, it would never make
it into space, as spacesuits are completely closed systems.

It is a naturally occurring phenomenon.

[edit on 5/4/2007 by iori_komei]

I was only being sarcastic.

Regards,
Maestro

I never thought about it before but what happens to the fart in an astronaut's space suit? Does it remain in there to cause discomfort to the astronaut or is it somehow siphoned off and maybe used to supplement manuevering rockets?