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a breath of fresh air in the orion

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nebula presented by science at nasa

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take a deep breath

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you just filled your lungs with about a

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thousand billion billion oxygen

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molecules

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there are oxygen bars in california

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where you can actually pay for a deep

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breath of o2

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but in most places on earth molecular

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oxygen is free and abundant

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the gas makes up almost 21 percent of

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our planet's atmosphere and is

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ubiquitous

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astronomers have just announced the

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discovery of this same gas in outer

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space

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here on earth oxygen was discovered in

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the 1770s says paul goldsmith of the jet

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propulsion laboratory

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early chemists called it fire air

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because of its combustible properties

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but it has taken us more than 230 years

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to finally say with certainty that this

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very simple molecule also exists in

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space

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goldsmith led a team of astronomers who

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used the european space agency's

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herschel space telescope to search for

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signs of molecular oxygen in

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star-forming clouds

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herschel senses far infrared radiation

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invisible to the human eye

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it just so happens that the molecular

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oxygen can be seen at these long

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wavelengths

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goldsmith's team found the telltale

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signs of o2 near the core of the great

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orion nebula

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the 2 in o2 is crucial the oxygen we

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breathe on earth is diatomic that is two

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oxygen atoms joined together to form a

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dumbbell shaped molecule

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single atoms of oxygen are highly

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reactive and can even be corrosive

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but when you put two oxygen atoms

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it's a breath of fresh air

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astronomers have long known that the

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reactive atomic form of oxygen is

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abundant in the universe

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it is found in gaseous nebula the

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atmospheres of stars and many other

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places this new discovery by herschel

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shows at long last that the familiar

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diatomic form of oxygen is out there too

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curiously the oxygen found by

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goldsmith's team is not a free-floating

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gas it appears to be mixed up in an icy

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frosting which coats grains of space

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dust in the nebula

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this explains where some of the oxygen

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might be hiding says goldsmith but we

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didn't find large amounts of it and

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still don't understand what is so

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special about the spots where we find it

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the universe still holds many secrets

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star-forming clouds tend to be dusty

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places so there could be lots more o2

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hiding out there

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goldsmith says the team plans to

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continue their hunt for this familiar

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gas in other clouds beyond the orion

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nebula

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out there he knows is an elusive whiff

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of earth among the stars