Is There Oxygen In Space

Unmanned cargo ships carry these oxygen tanks and deliver them to the space station.

Is there oxygen in space. But in space where there is plenty of ultraviolet radiation o 2 molecules are more easily broken apart to create atomic oxygen. These tanks are stored in the space station and used whenever necessary. Atomic oxygen doesn t exist naturally for very long on the surface of earth as it is very reactive.

The atmosphere in low earth orbit is comprised of about 96 atomic oxygen. In future space stations or space colonies nasa scientists hope to create oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide naturally by growing plants. Individual atoms of oxygen called atomic oxygen are common in space particularly around massive stars.

Although atomism led to the rejection of this suggestion it wasn t until the 1600s that the theory of no oxygen being present in space could be proved using scientific evidence. Instead of moisture and oxygen acting as the primary corrosion causes the materials exposed to outer space are subjected to vacuum bombardment by ultraviolet and x rays and high energy charged particles mostly electrons and protons from solar wind. But molecular oxygen which makes up about 20 percent of the air we breathe has eluded astronomers until now.

Greek astronomer aristotle suggested that nature abhors a vacuum a theory that later became known as horror vacui. You breathe it every minute but there s hardly any molecular oxygen otherwise known as o 2 in space. However there is oxygen inside supernova and ice asteroids water is h20 and there is some free flowing stuff in minute quantities in space itself as well as in various forms of oxides.

But molecular oxygen which is formed of two bonded oxygen atoms and makes up about 20. In 1998 nasa even launched a satellite that was supposed to find lots of molecular oxygen but. Russian spacesuits also make oxygen using sfogs.

Unfortunately you can t breathe it because most of space is a vacuum. Yes there is oxygen in space. The crew can also produce oxygen chemically by igniting sfog solid fuel oxygen generation canisters which are comprised of lithium perchlorate.