Recently, the European Space Agency’s Herschel telescope has found the first confirmed evidence of oxygen molecules in space. The Oxygen molecules have been found in the star forming region of the Orion constellation.
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Oxygen gas was discovered in the 1770s, but it’s taken us more than 230 years to finally say with certainty that this very simple molecule exists in space- project scientist.
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While single atoms of oxygen have been found alone or incorporated into other molecules, the oxygen molecule – the one we breathe – had never been seen.
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Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe, after hydrogen and helium. Its molecular form, with two atoms joined by a double bond, makes life on Earth possible – but this form had never definitively been seen in space.