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Re: Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P

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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"?

>> ?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?

>> 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?


-- 
Jim Pennino

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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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