Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EARLY EARTH
Making oxygen before life
by Staff Writers
Davis CA (SPX) Oct 07, 2014


UC Davis chemists have shown how ultraviolet light can split carbon dioxide to form oxygen in one step. Image courtesy Zhou Lu. For a larger version of this image please go here.

About one-fifth of the Earth's atmosphere is oxygen, pumped out by green plants as a result of photosynthesis and used by most living things on the planet to keep our metabolisms running. But before the first photosynthesizing organisms appeared about 2.4 billion years ago, the atmosphere likely contained mostly carbon dioxide, as is the case today on Mars and Venus.

Over the past 40 years, researchers have thought that there must have been a small amount of oxygen in the early atmosphere.

Where did this abiotic ("non-life") oxygen come from? Oxygen reacts quite aggressively with other compounds, so it would not persist for long without some continuous source.

Now UC Davis graduate student Zhou Lu, working with professors in the Departments of Chemistry and of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has shown that oxygen can be formed in one step by using a high energy vacuum ultraviolet laser to excite carbon dioxide. (The work is published Oct. 3 in the journal Science).

"Previously, people believed that the abiotic (no green plants involved) source of molecular oxygen is by CO2 + solar light - > CO + O, then O + O + M - > O2 + M (where M represents a third body carrying off the energy released in forming the oxygen bond)," Zhou said in an email.

"Our results indicate that O2 can be formed by carbon dioxide dissociation in a one step process. The same process can be applied in other carbon dioxide dominated atmospheres such as Mars and Venus."

Zhou used a vacuum ultraviolet laser to irradiate CO2 in the laboratory. Vacuum ultraviolet light is so-called because it has a wavelength below 200 nanometers and is typically absorbed by air. The experiments were performed by using a unique ion imaging apparatus developed at UC Davis.

Such one-step oxygen formation could be happening now as carbon dioxide increases in the region of the upper atmosphere, where high energy vacuum ultraviolet light from the Sun hits Earth or other planets. It is the first time that such a reaction has been shown in the laboratory.

According to one of the scientists who reviewed the paper for Science, Zhou's work means that models of the evolution of planetary atmospheres will now have to be adjusted to take this into account.

.


Related Links
UC Davis
Explore The Early Earth at TerraDaily.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





EARLY EARTH
Dinosaur tracks in Bolivia threatened with extinction
Sucre, Bolivia (AFP) Oct 03, 2014
A hill in southeastern Bolivia is crisscrossed by fossilized dinosaur tracks - a total of more than 5,000 footprints, some more than a meter long, dating back 65 million years. But preservationists say this paleontological treasure is at risk - thanks to human activity that threatens the ground they rest on. Cal Orcko, which means "lime hill" in the local Quechua language, on the outs ... read more


EARLY EARTH
Turning the Moon into a cosmic ray detector

Russia to Launch Full-Scale Moon Exploration Next Decade

Lunar explorers will walk at higher speeds than thought

Year's final supermoon is a Harvest Moon

EARLY EARTH
Opportunity's Heading to a Small Crater Called 'Ulysses'

India's Mars Orbiter Cost Only 11 Percent of NASA's Maven Probe: Reports

India's spacecraft beams back first Mars photos

NASA Rover Drill Pulls First Taste From Mars Mountain

EARLY EARTH
Two million Muslim pilgrims ending annual hajj

Club Med board recommends Chinese firm Fosun's new bid

Chinese Company to Create High-Altitude Space Balloon: Reports

Galactic getaway

EARLY EARTH
China Successfully Orbits Experimental Satellite

China's first space lab in operation for over 1000 days

China Exclusive: Mars: China's next goal?

Astronauts eye China's future space station

EARLY EARTH
NASA Expands Commercial Space Program

Yelena Serova becomes first Russian woman aboard space station

Crew including first woman cosmonaut in 17 years blasts off for ISS

A Giant Among Earth Satellites

EARLY EARTH
Arianespace's lightweight Vega launcher is readied for its mission with the European IXV spaceplane

Soyuz Rocket Awaiting Launch at Baikonur Cosmodrome

Elon Musk, Rick Perry attend groundbreaking for Texas spaceport

France raises heat on decision for next Ariane rocket

EARLY EARTH
New milestone in the search for water on distant planets

Clear skies on exo-Neptune

Distant planet's atmosphere shows evidence of water vapor

Chandra Finds Planet That Makes Star Act Deceptively Old

EARLY EARTH
3D printer makes bionic hand for 5-year-old girl

Fed Up With Federal Inaction, States Act Alone on Cap-and-Trade

How to make stronger, 'greener' cement

France taps Thales for radar antenna research project




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.