Scientists Discover Oxygen in Deep Space
Molecular oxygen has been discovered in deep space within the Orion nebula region. The mission, commissioned by the European Space Agency, was conducted at the Herschel Space Observatory.
While abundant in our solar system and especially on Earth, oxygen is seemingly rare in deep space. Astronomers have been long curious about the origins of the double-atom molecule.
“Oxygen gas was discovered in 1770’s, but it’s taken us more than 230 years to finally say with certainty that this very simple molecule exists in space,” said NASA researcher Paul Goldsmith, lead author of the project.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The infrared technology of the HIFI Spectrometer was used to confirm that molecular oxygen, which was originally discovered through the Swedish Odin telescope in 2007, does in fact exist in space.
Goldsmith, who works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, details that oxygen was observed in the Orion nebula in dense gas clouds. Accumulated within ice particles that cover grains of dust floating through space, the gas is released when stars forming in nebulas nearby heat particles.
Goldsmith suggests that there has always been oxygen throughout the recesses of space; it has just been hiding in obscure locations. With this discovery, astronomers plan to continue searching for oxygen in other star-forming regions.
Scientists have theorized the amount of oxygen that could be hidden throughout space. The amount that has been discovered is 10 times greater than what was predicted based on previous observations of molecules in space, but still is not as much as theory anticipated. Continued research may uncover an excess of oxygen inconspicuously traveling through space.
“Theory suggests we should find lots of oxygen atoms locked in molecular oxygen (O2), but previous searches kept falling short of such a large amount. With this new data, we finally have a string hint at where cosmic oxygen might be hiding,” said Goldsmith.
