Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Atmospheric Oxygen Within the Solar System?

Saturn is a planet of many moons. Most of these moons are small and desolate, but one stands apart. Scientists have observed the icy moon Dione to have a small, weak atmosphere. The Cassini probe detected trace amounts of oxygen on the surface of the moon, the only other celestial body besides earth in the solar system where we have done so. Scientists think that this oxygen comes from solar photons bombarding the moon's icy surface, releasing oxygen. This is significant for many reasons; one is that it could indicate that oxygen is not as uncommon as we once thought. (there is also oxygen in Saturn's rings and its moon Rhea) Also, it shows us that moons are also candidates for habitability.


Make no mistake, Dione's atmosphere is weak. As interesting as the mental image is, we could not survive there unaided. But if water and oxygen can exist in places like this, it's entirely possible that they are more common than we originally thought. This carries a lot of significance for the fields of human space travel and habitable exoplanets. Perhaps we will eventually find a planet that could be colonized with little more than an adequate space ship!

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-056&cid=release_2012-056

1 comment:

  1. Though it is weak you said we couldn't survive there "unaided", would it be possible to terraform it if we had the resources?

    ReplyDelete