Oxygen found on Saturn's moon Rhea

Oh Nooooos! Oxygen on a different celestial body! Wait a minute.. thats good news!

Kidding aside, terrific news.

Just the typical Nasa being attention whore. "We found another Earth..!! -click for news- Oops sorry it's just a ball with climate like Hell." You know they need the funding, so they need to show people are interested. It would suck to live in the ring of Saturn anyway with the constant bombing.

This was the best post to come back to from thanksgiving. Thanks! S & F

Originally posted by Oozii
I wonder what it tasted like.

First time they really seen oxygen in the atmosphere of another world.

Everything needed to hold life is out in the universe. And one day, if not soon, we'll find that other planet with that life.

The possibilities are endless of what whats to be discovered.

Yes. Imagine the super germs they could bring back that we have absolutely no defense against. Take a deep breath! Personally, I would rather have a puppet-master on my back.

I think it is a great discovery, however the powers that have control over where we go or what we get to know are so slow I will probably be dead before anything happens.

Peace,

Seq

Originally posted by dct1988
Just read about it here:
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Very interesting to say the least.

now thats more like it! I can believe National Geo

star

Great discovery !

But ...

Did anyone read the oxygen makes up about 70 % with 30% carbon ?

Or...

That the atmosphere is so thin The entire moons atmosphere can fit in a building ? And that it's only 170 degrees Celsius below zero ?

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
Great discovery !

But ...

Did anyone read the oxygen makes up about 70 % with 30% carbon ?

Or...

That the atmosphere is so thin The entire moons atmosphere can fit in a building ? And that it's only 170 degrees Celsius below zero ?

The people there are gonna be HUUGE

Send a spaceship, Set up basecamp (get IKEA to make us it so we can pack it in the spaceship easy but fold out massive), Suck all the air into our flatpackhouse with a hoover.
Sorted
I should contact nasa with my idea

This is awesome news to wake up to, I know many around here speculated that one of those moons out there would have oxygen so it's nice to hear that it does. Wonder what else we can find in this solar system of ours if there is oxygen could there be more

Don't think it would be a a great idea to travel there even if it is breathable.

Doesn't Jupiter emit a massive amount of radiation? Surely that in itself would hamper the possibility of life.

reply to post by Oozii


Oxygen, 3rd most common element in Universe, 2nd most common element in our atmosphere (although taken by life on breathing) and so frequent on Earth due to photosyntesis... If it was there as a result of such principles WOW... But it can be there "just" because ultraviolet molecule impacts (causing O to be released) I have a terrible hangover headache this morning........... Have a nice weekend everyone! (guees i wont be back til monday starandflagging before leaving)

Originally posted by Pershing1973
Don't think it would be a a great idea to travel there even if it is breathable.

Doesn't Jupiter emit a massive amount of radiation? Surely that in itself would hamper the possibility of life.

Perhaps, but this moon orbits Saturn -- a long way from Jupiter. Lots of other reasons for not going there, like it's too cold, no running water or toilets or fast food joints.

You need 6 elements for life on this planet:

C H N O P S

These elements are the most "versatile" in the universe.


Other elements are very restricted in what they can do compared to those. That's why scientists say that extraterrestrial life could very well have "DNA" and maybe even life similar to those here on Earth.


Just having O wouldn't work. You would need central atoms like C.

Great find, this made my day!

We could fire some sort of compact solidified gas rounds at that moon to change its atmosphere, something to dilute the methane. If methane is there it means at one put there was vegetation there, all that methane could be liquefied grass/trees/plants that turned into a gas form.

I'm not a scientist, but this sounds amazing. It would need to be terraformed but at least its something to play with, for the scientists that is.

reply to post by badw0lf


Pure oxygen is not poisonous. You can buy capsules of oxygen that are 90-100% pure oxygen. People buy them to help get rid of hangovers. I have bough them before and used them.

Originally posted by the_denv
Great find, this made my day!

We could fire some sort of compact solidified gas rounds at that moon to change its atmosphere, something to dilute the methane. If methane is there it means at one put there was vegetation there, all that methane could be liquefied grass/trees/plants that turned into a gas form.

I'm not a scientist, but this sounds amazing. It would need to be terraformed but at least its something to play with, for the scientists that is.

Unfortunately, I don't think we could 'thicken' the atmosphere of Rhea. The one it has is created by the bombardment, so the atmosphere is constantly gaining new molecules, but the mass is too small to hold it. I'm sure Rhea has been undergoing this for a long time, possibly since it formed just outsde of the rings, but without an electromagnetic barier or a heavier solid core, it will probably never have much of an atmosphere. Thats my thought anyways.

Temp

Good find.

I must say though, many factors go into making a planet OK for life to exist. The temperature, water, right mixture of gases in the atmosphere, tilt of planet on axis...on and on and on. My guess is that in the entire universe, life (as we know it) may be possible on a few planets, but I'm guessing it too be extreamly rare and could in fact be even non-existant anywhere but here. .

well finding oxygen doesn't necessarily mean life but i guess its a step forward in space exploration... how ? idk.

Originally posted by Jonas86
Just the typical Nasa being attention whore. "We found another Earth..!! -click for news- Oops sorry it's just a ball with climate like Hell." You know they need the funding, so they need to show people are interested. It would suck to live in the ring of Saturn anyway with the constant bombing.

edit on 27-11-2010 by Jonas86 because: (no reason given)

Actually not! If they were media whoring don't you think they would have announced it in a press conference back in March when the oxygen was 'scooped' out of the atmosphere? Also why would they publish in Nature rather than garnering all the attention in a press conference.

This board is brimming with ignorance these days.

To those toying with the idea of combustion of a 60% atmos that's rubbish. The atmos is 5,000,000,000,000 (short scale) times thinner than Earths atmos.

Also this is only the first time oxygen has actually been 'scooped' into a spacecraft. We already know by all our other well worn techniques of atmospheric analysis that oxygen is present in the atmos of a number of moons in the solar system.

And regarding some of you claiming there's no water on/in Rhea that's rubbish too. Don't any of you actually read sources links or related material?

www.guardian.co.uk...

www.newscientist.com...

www.sciencemag.org...

reply to post by Mr Mask


Please read the reports on this discovery more carefully. Your post is almost completely wrong. I know you wish you had a bigger brain, because you said so. Well, I'd be happy to chip in a few bucks towards one if you think it will help.

Only two ways?
No water?