It seems that researchers might have found a way to produce breathable oxygen on Mars.
They’ve developed a method to extract oxygen from carbon dioxide which is inspired by comets, and believe it could be used for future interplanetary missions as well as a way to reduce greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Chemical reactions require energy, and this energy is usually kinetic, (which can be used to start a chemical reaction). Researchers know that water molecules released by comets can be accelerated by the solar wind, and these release oxygen when they’re dropped back on the comet’s surface with considerable impact.
Considering comets also emit carbon dioxide, researchers thought it’d be a good idea to replicate the process but instead of water, using co2. hey set up an experiment where they accelerated carbon dioxide molecules and made them collide with a gold foil surface. Gold is an inert element so researchers were certain that any oxygen formed would come from the chemical reaction. (Inert meaning non-reactive). They weren’t actually sure what was going to happen, but they gave it a shot anyways. At the time we thought it would be impossible to combine the two oxygen atoms of a CO2 molecule together because CO2 is a linear molecule, and you would have to bend the molecule severely for it to work,” senior author Professor Konstantinos P. Giapis said in a statement. “You’re doing something really drastic to the molecule.”
Luckily, it did work and the researchers found a new way of generating oxygen, something which will be vital for future long-term travel to places like Mars.
And who says there’s not that many great scientific discoveries these days?!
