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Oxygen From Earth's Atmosphere May Be Traveling To the Moon's Surface (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: New research shows that oxygen from Earth could be journeying all the way out to the Moon, where it then gets lodged inside the lunar soil. It's a process that's likely been happening for 2.4 billion years, ever since oxygen formed around our planet, meaning the Moon's soil may contain trapped particles from Earth's ancient atmosphere. This oxygen exchange, detailed in a study published today in Nature Astronomy, supposedly occurs for just a few days during the Moon's 27-day orbit. Most of the time, the Moon is constantly being blasted with solar wind -- fast streams of charged particles emanating from the Sun. But for five days of every lunar orbit, the Moon passes into Earth's magnetotail, the portion of the planet's magnetic field that stretches outward away from the Sun. This tail shields the Moon from the solar wind, and allows charged oxygen ions from Earth to travel to the lunar surface, according to the study. That means the Moon -- a dead rock incapable of supporting life -- is being showered with the byproducts of life here on Earth. In fact, the source of most of the oxygen in our atmosphere is biological, created by plants during photosynthesis. It's a process that experts have suspected for a while but haven't been able to confirm until today. Researchers have also suggested that other atmospheric components, such as nitrogen and noble gases, are getting to the Moon this way based on lunar soil samples.
Monsanto is planning to sue the moon if any pollen from their corn get there.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Here come the mining operations.
Monsanto is planning to sue the moon if any pollen from their corn get there.
Cheesus! That's insane! Can't we put up some sort of membrane?
All of the oxygen was made in the sun.
More correct would likely had been to say "in the stars" or "in some star" if it's ok to talk about single oxygen molecules. ..
Whatever that's good enough or if "as nuclear waste" would be the better claim
Clearly the moon is robbing us of resources without contributing anything back. It poses an existential threat to our way of life. I would like president Trump to look into this personally and takes steps to ensure that this theft of our resources does not happen again. Perhaps a fourth month ban on moon cycles until a reasonable course of action can be decided upon?
/dev/zero >
Maybe in some strange parallel universe, this will be the next habitable piece of rock in the solar system.
As the Moon spins out from Earth's gravity, it collides with a large asteroid, heating the Moon, warming up, starting planetary thermodynamics, releasing all this stored "stolen" life giving elements into the space around the Moon, but kept in place by its' new gravitational strength.
Then ultimately picked up by the sun in just the right spot...
How long would it take for an oxygen ion to make that trip? How fast are these particles moving? Wouldn't it have to be within that five day period while the moon is shielded?
Just another day in Paradise
Nothing a yuge wall can't handle!
And the moon will pay!
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
go look up what plants do
What plants do does not include creating oxygen from other elements with nuclear processes. That's why you're an AC troll and we're not.
OK, somebody finds a way of sending all our excess CO2 to the moon, fast.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Plants produce oxygen via nuclear fusion?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The Monolith needs to breathe too.
What's really funny is that this could be the truth.
Some viruses are thought to be small enough to escape the Earth's atmosphere. Bacterial spores are considerably larger, but still small enough that the panspermia hypothesis --that life on Earth was originally seeded by space-borne spores-- is a viable concept (not necessarily true, but cannot be dismissed by anything within current scientific knowledge). When you consider that the upper atmosphere is under constant bombardment by meteors, there is enough outside energy being introduced at local levels to propel even large pieces of dust, pollens, spores, and virus particles into the region where magnetospheric influences become more significant than Earth gravity.
Since lunar regolith has been collecting and probably preserving stuff for at least as long as life on Earth has existed, there might be detectable levels of viruses or even spores or possibly grains of pollen in the Moon dust. I wonder if anyone has bothered to look for that yet? I am guessing not; I doubt that anyone has even done the theoretical work to estimate the amount of bioactive substances that might be present in Moon dust.
As to Monsanto's role in all this--- yes, their corporate history demonstrates a willingness to file lawsuits whenever one of their pet plants escapes the designated plots of those who buy Monsanto's devilseed. :)
I thought oxygen was heavy enough that it was only formed in supernovas? That the fusion process in normal stars could not produce elements that heavy?
Or is it that oxygen formation is now considered the borderline between what a living star can produce and what requires a supernova's environment?
I'm behind in my knowledge of astrophysics. I never got beyond reading layman level material, and for several decades I've been distracted by other things. So what is the current thinking about stellar fusion products? Does this have any implications for carbon dating, etc?
I was always told that heavier molecules like oxygen tend to stay towards earth's ground and lighter gases like helium are at the top of our atmosphere. How they manage to get oxygen out of this is beyond me.
I don't usually respond to AC posts, but yours is kind of cute in an ugly troll doll sort of way. Go ask your Grandma what an ugly troll doll looked like.
Unless plants are doing some form of cold fusion that has yet to be discovered, they are not producing oxygen. They are simply moving existing oxygen from one molecule to another.
Please refrain from mixing up chemistry and nuclear physics. Better yet, please refrain from posting on slashdot until you know the difference between the different fields of scientific inquiry.
At some point in the 70's, astronomers believed that normal planetary formation processes, for a planet of similar size and composition as Earth, would inevitably lead to a very dense atmosphere like Venus. Earth ended up with a small atmosphere because it had a giant, close-orbiting moon that "stripped away" particles from the very edges of the atmosphere. Therefore we should be thankful for this giant moon, which is probably very rare for a planet the size of Earth.
(in fact Asimov says in one of his later Foundation books that complex sentient life only evolved on Earth in this galaxy because of a very rare combination of a giant moon and radioactive crust)
Sure, but let's use an easy-to-remember combination for the locking shield.
#DeleteFacebook
That's no moon...
#DeleteFacebook
I don't know what plants do, but I do know they crave electrolytes.
#DeleteFacebook
Oxygen is formed in main-sequence stars via the CNO cycle between carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. The sun generates 0.5% of its power through those reactions; the remaining 99.5% comes from proton fusion.
But if the moon is paying for the wall then who's going to pay for my health coverage?
Are there any waterbears on the moon waiting to spawn when there is enough O2?
Oxygen is created by fusion. Likely from a star. Oxygen isn't created by photosynthesis, unless TFA is specifying only diatomic oxygen.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Just one more way we are polluting the environment! The EPA needs to get on this stat!
Actually, maybe NASA could convince people this is a legitimate problem so they will get behind funding a moon base.
That's the same combination I have on my luggage!
Too soon?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I don't know.
Should just go with nuclear waste.
The news about the oxygen leaving the atmosphere dated from last September. So, were they expecting that the oxygen leaving would try to avoid the gravitational pull of the moon or something?
Elok