Creating Molecular Oxygen from Water (IMAGE)

California Institute of Technology

Creating Molecular Oxygen from Water

Caption

Caltech's Konstantinos Giapis has shown how molecular oxygen may be produced on the surface of comets using lab experiments. He and his postdoctoral scholar Yunxi Yao fired high-speed water molecules at oxidized silicon and iron surfaces and observed the production of a plume that included molecular oxygen. Giapis says that similar conditions exist on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission detected molecular oxygen.

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Caltech

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