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------------ 1877 - What can we earn from Oxygen?
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- There are 92 natural elements, but, oxygen alone has got to be the most important for life. What we breath is 99.9 % nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Argon is an inert gas used to fill incandescent light bulbs. Hydrogen is the most abundant element, and helium is the second most abundant element. But, helium is used to fill balloons and not much else.
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- Yet, in the cores of stars helium undergoes fusion creating Oxygen. That is like the most important element, to us. 90% of water by weight is oxygen. The rings of Saturn are mostly oxygen. Our atmosphere is 21% oxygen.
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- It is not physics that is producing this oxygen. It is life, plants. Plants absorb oxygen in the form of carbon dioxide, then use the carbon to produce structure. For plants oxygen is a “ waste product”. We are lucky enough to get the waste product to give us our structure.
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- It was in 1772 that oxygen gas was first isolated in the air. Oxygen bonds easily with other elements. 67% of animal bodies by weight is oxygen. Half the Moon by weight is oxygen. Remember, the Moon got splashed off the surface of Earth into its orbit.
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- Originally oxygen got splashed into space by the explosion of giant stars, supernovae began exploding 100,000,000 years after the Big Bang. That process was first discovered by Arthur Eddington in 1920. Four hydrogen atoms fuse into one helium atom in the core of stars. This fusion continues until carbon and oxygen are left in a collapsed White Dwarf Star, a solid ball of oxygen and carbon.
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- As the collapsing star ends its life it spreads some material into space as an expanding bubble. This end-of-life process is called a “ planetary nebula”, although it has nothing to do with planets. It was originally a case of mistaken identity.
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- Oxygen did not show up in Earth’s atmosphere until 2,400,000,000 years ago. After 300,000,000 years the Earth was thick with plants and oxygen in the atmosphere. It was at 35% concentration. Animal life were hyper-giants with all this oxygen to burn.
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- An oxygen atom emits color when an electron falls to a lower orbit nearer the nucleus. To observe this color you need to have oxygen atoms in an excited state, a higher energy level. This occurs naturally in the “aurora borealis“, the “ northern lights”.
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- The natural yellow-green light is 557.7 nanometers wavelength from energized oxygen atoms. The blue-green light at 500.7 nanometers wavelength is emitted in planetary nebulae. The hydrogen spectrum is at 656.3 nanometers wavelength.
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- Oxygen has 3 stable isotopes where the nucleus contains up to 2 extra neutrons. But, the nucleus normally contains 8 protons and 8 neutrons for an atomic weight of 16. Designated as 0-16, but with extra neutrons it becomes 0-17 and 0-18.
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- These oxygen isotopes are like “ fingerprints”. Different ratios occur in different orbits in the Solar System. That is how astronomers can identify that a particular meteorite originated on the planet Mars. Other meteorites were identified coming from the large asteroid Vesta. Our Moon has the same ratios as the Earth, because that is where it came from.
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- A Boeing 747 SP has discovered oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. Flying in our own upper atmosphere this special performance (SP) aircraft has been outfitted with a 100 inch telescope called, SOFIA, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
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- To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen the observatory had to be high above most of Earth’s atmosphere and have highly sensitive instruments. The 747 is flying at altitudes between 37,000 and 45,000 feet.
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- The atomic oxygen detected was about ½ the amount expected. SOFIA is continuing to make measurements to better understand the Martian atmosphere.
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- A totally different study of Mars has to do with the geological shape of the once shoreline in its northern plains. The shoreline was created by giant ocean waves created by meteorite impacts 3.4 billion years ago.
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- This is indirect evidence of cold, salty oceans that were once on the planet and that could have sustained life. The shoreline has widespread backwash channels that carried water back into the ocean.
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- There exists evidence of two big meteorite impacts. In the millions of years between the 2 impacts Mars went through a frigid climate change that froze the oceans. The ocean level receded to form a secondary shoreline. The second giant wave formed rounded lobes of ice.
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- These icy lobes retained their well defined boundaries and their flow-related shapes. Cold, salty waters may offer a refuge for life in an extreme environment. The salts could have kept the water liquid. The ponded water appears to have emplaced lacustrine sediments, including evaporates Lacustrine means, at the bottom, or along the shore of lakes , as geological strata.
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- Water and Oxygen are two ingredients that astronomers hope to find in their search for extraterrestrial life. The search goes on. Stay tuned , an announcement will be made shortly.
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- Request these Reviews to learn more about Mars:
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- #1860 - The Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed 45,000 orbits and taken 200,000 pictures. And, lists 9 more reviews about Mars. #1796 to #24.
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----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Tuesday, May 24, 2016 -----
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