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Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P

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Lofty Goat <rlwatkins@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Oct 2015 21:37:41 +0000, jimp wrote:
> 
>> Sam Wormley <swormley1@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P
>> 
>> Yet more astronomy news cut and pasted to the physics group instead of
>> an astronomy group.
>> 
>>>> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rosetta-sniffs-oxygen-around-
> comet-67p/
>>> 
>>>> Scientists have detected molecules of oxygen in the hazy halo of comet
>>>> 67P/Churyumov?Gerasimenko?an unexpected discovery that may challenge
>>>> theories about the formation of the Solar System. The detection, made
>>>> by an instrument on board the European Space Agency?s Rosetta
>>>> spacecraft, was reported today ( October 28) in Nature.
>> 
>> Why was oxygen unexpected when comets contain a lot of H2O?
>> 
>> Do these guys know what the 'O' in H2O stands for?
>> 
>> How does free oxygen around a comet "challenge theories about the
>> formation of the Solar System"?
> 
> Because it hasn't reacted with other elements, most notably hydrogen, of 
> which there's an abundance.
> 
>>>> ?As soon as we got close enough to the comet, we actually found it
>>>> right away,? says Andr? Bieler, a physicist at the University of
>>>> Michigan in Ann Arbor and lead author of the paper. Bieler says that
>>>> he was surprised by both the presence and abundance of molecular
>>>> oxygen (O2) because it is usually quick to react with other chemicals.
>> 
>> What other chemicals would there be in a vacuum around an object that
>> has a lot of ice that would react with oxygen?
> 
> See above.
> 
>>>> From September 2014 to March 2015, as 67P made its way closer to the
>>>> Sun, Bieler and his colleagues used a mass spectrometer on Rosetta to
>>>> sniff the molecules swirling around the comet and identify their
>>>> chemical composition. They found on average that O2 makes up 3.8% of
>>>> the cloud relative to the most abundant substance, water.
>> 
>> A cloud of water being bombarded by high energy partiles in a vacuum and
>> oxygen was found; what did they expect, rubbidium?
> 
> Those high-energy particles are pretty tenuous, not enough to dissociate 
> the observed quantity of oxygen from water.

Time is on the side of those "tenuous" particles.

> Do you know much astronomy, Jim?  Lots of physics involved in it, makes it 
> pretty interesting even after one tires of watching eclipses and meteor 
> showers.

Baking cupcakes involves physics, yet most rational people would not
post cupcake recipes to a physics group.

I had the misfortune to take two semesters of astronomy from a guy
who was just as big an ass as the ass hat.


-- 
Jim Pennino

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Thread

Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P Sam Wormley <swormley1@gmail.com> - 2015-10-29 16:03 -0500
  Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com - 2015-10-29 21:37 +0000
    Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P Lofty Goat <rlwatkins@gmail.com> - 2015-10-29 20:19 -0500
      Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com - 2015-10-30 05:07 +0000
        Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P Sam Wormley <swormley1@gmail.com> - 2015-10-30 08:23 -0500
          Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com - 2015-10-30 17:00 +0000
        Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P Lofty Goat <rlwatkins@gmail.com> - 2015-10-31 18:48 -0500

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