http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/basic-space/2011/08/15/oxygen-might-be-hiding-behind-grains-of-cosmic-dust/
This article discusses the very recent discovery of oxygen in space. Previously it was thought that in the interstellar medium (the space between stars in galaxies) there was only hydrogen, helium, and cosmic dust, but when Paul Goldsmith and his colleagues examined a heated part of the Orion molecular cloud complex, they found a long chain of reactions that eventually yielded the product of oxygen in the interstellar medium. The process is triggered by heat and the ionizing of hydrogen atoms by a cosmic ray and is completed with OH reacting with atomic oxygen. Many scientists have attempted to find oxygen in space, but have failed because the Oxygen was being frozen into dust grains making it invisible to missions. Although Goldsmith and his colleagues made a breakthrough with the discovery of oxygen in the interstellar medium, they still have a lot of questions to answer such as the amounts and source of the emissions of oxygen. What sparked my interest about this article was that this discovery reminds us how much we don't know about space and the interstellar medium. If we can find oxygen behind dust particles in a single cloud complex, then maybe we can find other atoms and elements in the rest of the vastness of space that could lead to the discovery of potential life forms.
Posted by Hannah Brown
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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This is an incredibly interesting article and such an interesting discovery! It's amazing to see the new things scientists keep discovering and how much they can change our lives!
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