#Konstantinos P. Giapis

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Comet inspires chemistry for making breathable oxygen on Mars

Reaction turns carbon dioxide into molecular oxygen

Science fiction stories are chock full of terraforming schemes and oxygen generators for a very good reason -- we humans need molecular oxygen (O2) to breathe, and space is essentially devoid of it. Even on other planets with thick atmospheres, O2 is hard to come by.

So, when we explore space, we need to bring our own oxygen supply. That is not ideal because a lot of energy is needed to hoist things into space atop a rocket, and once the supply runs out, it is gone.

One place molecular oxygen does appear outside of Earth is in the wisps of gas streaming off comets. The source of that oxygen remained a mystery until two years ago when Konstantinos P. Giapis, a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech, and his postdoctoral fellow Yunxi Yao, proposed the existence of a new chemical process that could account for its production. Giapis, along with Tom Miller, professor of chemistry, have now demonstrated a new reaction for generating oxygen that Giapis says could help humans explore the universe and perhaps even fight climate change at home. More fundamentally though, he says the reaction represents a new kind of chemistry discovered by studying comets.

Read more.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Comets, He-Man & DayZ

Welcome back for another amazing episode from the Nerds, it is full of fun stuff, amazing science, and some crazy stuff. We hope as always that you enjoy it and perhaps by accident or intentionally learn something cool. I remember when I found out about chemistry, It was a long, long way from here, I was old enough to want it but younger than I wanted to be, Suddenly my mission was clear… All about chemistry. OK, I know that is the song Chemistry by Semisonic, but it relates to our first topic from Buck, which is all about chemistry and producing oxygen on Mars, Comets, and interplanetary space travel. That’s right we are one step closer to science fiction becoming reality once more. Honestly, where would the world be without science, science fiction, or Nerds to think up the impossible dreams? Although we must apologise for the zombie apocalypse resulting from the advancements in technology; otherwise known as reality television, social media, or just uncontrollable gaming. But, all that aside scientist have found a way to change carbon-dioxide (CO2) into beautiful oxygen (O2). That’s right, you heard us correctly, and it doesn’t involve a chemical scrubber like those currently used on submarines. No, this alters the very nature of the chemical bonds on a molecular level in a whole new way.

By the power of Greyskull, someone has the power. That’s right folks, He-Man is coming back to our screens in the near future it seems. DJ has brought us news that a new extension to the story of He-Man is in the works, he says it is an anime, but we aren’t sold. But it is exciting that it appears to not be a rebirth or re-imagining. But then again that is those weirdos over at Disney doing all the remakes, except for the unfortunate incident with She-Ra. Whoever is responsible for that fiasco is a greater villain than Skeletor and Hordak combined. Seriously, it was traumatic to see what had happened there. With the contentiousness of is it going to be able to claim the title of an anime aside, He-Man is looking promising.

Next we have the Professor bringing us news about the censorship of a few games in Australia and the impact that is having on the world. Now we normally don’t agree with a lot of the issues in censorship, or Material Ratings as they are referred to, but this time there is some merit. This topic is one in which the Nerds have a heated debate, and Buck really gets fired up, DJ gets angry and the Professor needs a whip and chair to keep them apart. So if you feel strongly about the topic of censorship this might be a poignant topic for you. We apologise if we offend anyone during this section (I know we don’t normally, but hey). Let us know what you think on the matter, is Buck an old fart that needs to be exhibited in a museum, is the DJ taking the matter too light, is it somewhere in between (like the Professor).

As always we have the games played this week, which is looking interesting. Also the weekly shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and events of interest. As always stay safe, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Comet chemistry - https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/comet-inspires-chemistry-making-breathable-oxygen-mars

He-Man Anime - https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/08/19/he-man-anime-synopsis-kevin-smith-netflix/

DayZ Banned in Australia - https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/08/dayz-pc-ps4-xbox-one-banned-completely-australia/

Games currently playing

Buck

– Dungeons and Dragons - https://dnd.wizards.com/

Professor

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/861540/Dicey_Dungeons/

DJ – Mortal Kombat 11

- https://www.mortalkombat.com/

Other topics discussed

Chemistry – Semisonic

Published on Oct 7, 2009

Music video by Semisonic performing Chemistry. (C) 2001 Geffen Records

Category Music Song CHEMISTRY

Writers

Dan Wilson

Licensed to YouTube by

LatinAutor - Warner Chappell, PEDL, LatinAutor, ASCAP, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, Warner Chappell, LatinAutor - PeerMusic, and 5 Music Rights Societies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCVR2pjXc0

Rihanna feat. Drake – Work (2016 song)

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1UzIK-flA

Comet

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet

Total Recall (1990 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Recall_(1990_film)

Climate Change in China

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_China

Carbon Dioxide scrubber

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_scrubber

Solar Impulse (Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse

Canadian company sells bottled air to China

- https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/15/asia/china-canadian-company-selling-clean-air/index.html

Most expensive bottle of water

- https://alvinology.com/2008/04/15/worlds-most-expensive-bottled-water/

Oxygen bars

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

He-Man – What’s Up

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjVugzSR7HA

More details about He-Man

- https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/kevin-smith-creating-new-he-man-animated-series/

- https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/18/masters-of-the-universe-revelation-kevin-smith-netflix-to-continue-original-animated-series/

Western Anime TV shows

- Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender

- Teen Titans (2003 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Titans_(TV_series)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018 series)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She-Ra_and_the_Princesses_of_Power

Comparison of She-Ra in the 1985 series and her 2018 redesign

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/She-Ra_comparison.png

- https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qOlZ2u2Duk/W_IqVYCvmpI/AAAAAAADlPQ/eYUrEFWP1vcr0ljMgVFsJZ-sLeASo2GDwCLcBGAs/s1600/shera-shera.jpg

Netflix fires Kids & Family Executives

- https://deadline.com/2019/08/netflix-layoffs-executives-kids-family-1202687407/

Netflix market value drops

- https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2019/07/24/as-growth-slows-netflix-market-value-drops-26-billion-in-a-week/

Acorn TV (American subscription streaming service)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_TV

- https://acorn.tv/

Reasons why Netflix are cancelling its original programs

- https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/08/20/4-reasons-netflix-cancels-its-original-programs.aspx

Game of Thrones creator: End of Game of Thrones on TV was a liberation

- https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/17/george-rr-martin-game-thrones-writer-end-of-show-was-liberation

Game of thrones book ending will be different to the show ending – Geroge R Martin

- https://people.com/tv/george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-books-end-differently-show/

Anime reboots to TV series

- Ghost in the Shell : Stand Along Complex (2002 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex

- Appleseed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed_(manga)#Anime

Samurai Jack (2001 TV Series)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Jack

Fallout 3 (2008 game)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3

Joy Pill (We Happy Few game item)

- https://we-happy-few.fandom.com/wiki/Joy

Lisa Simpson taking happy pills

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxkDytaDI0w

Banned video games in Australia

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia

Banned movies

- Tender Loving Care (1998 Interactive movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tender_Loving_Care_(video_game)

- Nymphomaniac (2013 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphomaniac_(film)

Other banned movies

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_films

Noddy the TV series banned

- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-truth-about-how-noddy-was-framed-1256823.html

Bill Henson (controversial art photographer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Henson

Michael Atkinson (former Australian politician opposed to R18+ for games)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Atkinson

Mortal Kombat 11 new content

- New character: Nightwolf - https://mortalkombat.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwolf

- Kombat Pack Roster Reveal Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRjbIuJWtlg

Disney vs Sony standoff

- https://deadline.com/2019/08/kevin-feige-spider-man-franchise-exit-disney-sony-dispute-avengers-endgame-captain-america-winter-soldier-tom-rothman-bob-iger-1202672545/

Future Disney princesses

- Sarah Connor (Terminator character) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Connor_(Terminator)

- Ellen Ripley (Alien character) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Ripley

The Humour Experiment (TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/thehumourexperiment

Shoutouts

19 Aug 1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft. More than 200 people were accused, 19 of whom were found guilty and executed byhanging (14 women and 5 men). One other man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns: Salem Village (now Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

19 Aug 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the last Shah of Iran. While the coup is at times referred to in the West as Operation Ajax after its CIA cryptonym, in Iran it is referred to as the 28 Mordad 1332 Coup d'état, after its date on the Iranian calendar. Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years, then put under house arrest until his death and was buried in his own home so as to prevent a political furore. In 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the coup, as a part of its foreign policy initiatives. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

19 Aug 1967 - Beatles' "All You Need is Love" single goes #1. In a statement to Melody Maker magazine, Brian Epstein, the band's manager, said of "All You Need Is Love": "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message. The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything." Lennon later attributed the song's simple lyrical statements to his liking of slogans and television advertising. He likened the song to a propaganda piece, adding: "I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change." - https://www.stereogum.com/2018942/the-number-ones-the-beatles-all-you-need-is-love/franchises/the-number-ones/

19 Aug 2013 – The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar. At least 37 people were killed and 24 were injured. The accident triggered a protest by passengers who beat the driver unconscious, attacked staff and torched two coaches of the train. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhamara_Ghat_train_accident

Remembrances

12 Aug 2019 - Danny Cohen, a distinguished computer scientist who helped develop the first digital visual flight simulator for pilot training, early digital voice conferencing and cloud computing. Cohen was a graduate student at Harvard University in the late 1960s when he helped develop the first computerized flight simulation system on a general-use computer. The design re-created aircraft flight and the landscape it travelled above. He was involved in the ARPAnet project and helped develop various fundamental applications for the Internet. Cohen is probably best known for his 1980 paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" which adopted the terminology of endianness for computing (a term borrowed from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels). He died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 81 in Palo Alto, California. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Cohen_(computer_scientist)

19 Aug 1662 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician,physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalising the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defence of the scientific method. Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of 16, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo Galilei and Torricelli, in 1647, he rebutted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. Pascal's results caused many disputes before being accepted. He died from stomach cancer at the age of 39 in Paris. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

19 Aug 1822 - Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author of well-known books on the history of astronomy like the Histoire de l'astronomie from ancient times to the 18th century. Delambre was one of the first astronomers to derive astronomical equations from analytical formulas, was the author of Delambre's Analogies. He was a knight (chevalier) of the Order of Saint Michael and of the Légion d'honneur. His name is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower. The crater Delambre on the Moon is named after him. He died at the age of 72 in Paris. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Joseph_Delambre

19 Aug 1977 - Groucho Marx, American comedian, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. A master of quick wit, he is widely considered one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, and a thick greasepaint moustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and moustache. He died from pneumonia at the age of 86 at the age of 86 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles,California. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx

19 Aug 1994 - Linus Pauling, American chemist,biochemist,peace activist, author, educator, and husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history. Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the alpha helix and beta sheet in protein secondary structure. His discoveries inspired the work of James Watson,Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms. In his later years he promoted nuclear disarmament, as well as orthomolecular medicine, megavitamin therapy, and dietary supplements. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie,John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger). He died from prostate cancer at the age of 93 in Big Sur, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling

Famous birthdays

19 Aug 1871 – Orville Wright, one half of the Wright Brothers who were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft, the Wright Flyer III. Although not the first to build experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. The brothers' breakthrough was their creation of a three-axis control system, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. He was born in Dayton, Ohio - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

19 Aug 1921 – Gene Roddenberry, American television screenwriter,producer and creator of the original Star Trek television series, and its first spin-off The Next Generation. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television. As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted by both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have his ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games, and fan films set in the Star Trek universe. He was born in El Paso, Texas. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Roddenberry

19 Aug 1944 – Charles Wang, American businessman and philanthropist who was a co-founder and CEO of Computer Associates International, Inc. (later renamed to CA Technologies). Wang grew Computer Associates into one of the country's largest software vendors. Wang authored two books to help executives master technology: Techno Vision and Techno Vision II. He was a minority owner (and past majority owner) of the NHL's New York Islanders ice hockey team and their AHL affiliate, an investor in numerous businesses, and benefactor to charities including Smile Train, the World Childhood Foundation, the Islanders Children's Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, among others. He was born in Shanghai. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wang

19 Aug 1967 - Satya Nadella, engineer and Indian American business executive. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014. He led a giant round of layoffs and flattened the organization (getting rid of middle managers). Before becoming chief executive, he was the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Group, responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms. His tenure has emphasized openness to working with companies and technologies with which Microsoft also competes, including Apple Inc.,IBM and Dropbox. Under Nadella Microsoft revised its mission statement to "empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more". In comparison to founder Bill Gates's "a PC on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software", Nadella says that it is an enduring mission, rather than a temporal goal. His key goal has been transforming Microsoft’s corporate culture into one that values continual learning and growth. Nadella's leadership of Microsoft included a series of high-profile acquisitions of other companies, to redirect Microsoft's focus. His first major acquisition was of Mojang, a Swedish game company best known for the popular freeform computer building game Minecraft, in late 2014, for $2.5 billion. He followed that by purchasing Xamarin and LinkedIn in 2016, then GitHub in 2018. He was born Hyderabad, Telangana. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella

Events of interest

19 Aug 1887 - Dmitri Mendeleev makes a solo ascent by balloon to an altitude of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) above Klin, Russia to observe an eclipse. - https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0819/

19 Aug 1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. Named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in every theatre of World War II, and after the war ended, many remained in service, operating across four decades. Produced in numerous variants, nearly 10,000 B-25s were built. These included a few limited models such as the F-10 reconnaissance aircraft, the AT-24 crew trainers, and the United States Marine Corps' PBJ-1 patrol bomber. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell

19 Aug 1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, was launched. The satellite, in orbit near the International Date Line, had the addition of a wideband channel for television and was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

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RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

General Enquiries

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

[scitechman]

Comet Inspires Chemistry for Making Breathable Oxygen on Mars

Comet Inspires Chemistry for Making Breathable Oxygen on Mars

So, when we explore space, we need to bring our own oxygen supply. That is not ideal because a lot of energy is needed to hoist things into space atop a rocket, and once the supply runs out, it is gone.

One place molecular oxygen does appear outside of Earth is in the wisps of gas streaming off comets. The source of that oxygen remained a mystery until two years ago when Konstantinos P. Giapis

[mindblowingscience]

In 2015, scientists announced the detection molecular oxygen at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was studied by the Rosetta spacecraft. It was the “biggest surprise of the mission,” they said — a discovery that could change our understanding of how the solar system formed. While molecular oxygen is common on Earth, it is rarely seen elsewhere in the universe. In fact, astronomers have detected molecular oxygen outside the solar system only twice, and never before on a comet. The initial explanation for the oxygen found in the faint envelope of gas that surrounds the comet was that the oxygen was frozen inside the comet since the beginning of our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. It was believed that the oxygen had thawed as the comet made its way closer to the Sun. But researchers are rethinking that theory, thanks to a chemical engineer from Caltech who usually works on developing microprocessors.   Konstantinos P. Giapis was intrigued by the Rosetta finding because it appeared to him that the chemical reactions occurring on Comet 67P’s surface were very similar to experiments he had been performing in his lab for the past 20 years. Giapis studies chemical reactions involving high-speed charged atoms, or ions, colliding with semiconductor surfaces in order to develop faster computer chips and larger digital memories for computers and phones.

“I started to take an interest in space and was looking for places where ions would be accelerated against surfaces,” Giapis said in a statement. “After looking at measurements made on Rosetta's comet, particularly regarding the energies of the water molecules hitting the comet, it all clicked. What I've been studying for years is happening right here on this comet.”

Continue Reading.

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Reaction turns carbon dioxide into molecular oxygen -- ScienceDaily

http://tinyurl.com/y38m9ov8 Science fiction stories are chock full of terraforming schemes and oxygen generators for a very good reason — we humans need molecular oxygen (O2) to breathe, and space is essentially devoid of it. Even on other planets with thick atmospheres, O2 is hard to come by. So, when we explore space, we need to bring our own oxygen supply. That is not ideal because a lot of energy is needed to hoist things into space atop a rocket, and once the supply runs out, it is gone. One place molecular oxygen does appear outside of Earth is in the wisps of gas streaming off comets. The source of that oxygen remained a mystery until two years ago when Konstantinos P. Giapis, a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech, and his postdoctoral fellow Yunxi Yao, proposed the existence of a new chemical process that could account for its production. Giapis, along with Tom Miller, professor of chemistry, have now demonstrated a new reaction for generating oxygen that Giapis says could help humans explore the universe and perhaps even fight climate change at home. More fundamentally though, he says the reaction represents a new kind of chemistry discovered by studying comets. Most chemical reactions require energy, which is typically provided as heat. Giapis’s research shows that some unusual reactions can occur by providing kinetic energy. When water molecules are shot like extremely tiny bullets onto surfaces containing oxygen, such as sand or rust, the water molecule can rip off that oxygen to produce molecular oxygen. This reaction occurs on comets when water molecules vaporize from the surface and are then accelerated by the solar wind until they crash back into the comet at high speed. Comets, however, also emit carbon dioxide (CO2). Giapis and Yao wanted to test if CO2 could also produce molecular oxygen in collisions with the comet surface. When they found O2 in the stream of gases coming off the comet, they wanted to confirm that the reaction was similar to water’s reaction. They designed an experiment to crash CO2 onto the inert surface of gold foil, which cannot be oxidized and should not produce molecular oxygen. Nonetheless, O2 continued to be emitted from the gold surface. This meant that both atoms of oxygen come from the same CO2 molecule, effectively splitting it in an extraordinary manner. “At the time we thought it would be impossible to combine the two oxygen atoms of a CO2 molecule together because CO2 is a linear molecule, and you would have to bend the molecule severely for it to work,” Giapis says. “You’re doing something really drastic to the molecule.” To understand the mechanism of how CO2 breaks down to molecular oxygen, Giapis approached Miller and his postdoctoral fellow Philip Shushkov, who designed computer simulations of the entire process. Understanding the reaction posed a significant challenge because of the possible formation of excited molecules. These molecules have so much energy that their constituent atoms vibrate and rotate around to an enormous degree. All that motion makes simulating the reaction in a computer more difficult because the atoms within the molecules move in complex ways. “In general, excited molecules can lead to unusual chemistry, so we started with that,” Miller says. “But, to our surprise, the excited state did not create molecular oxygen. Instead, the molecule decomposed into other products. Ultimately, we found that a severely bent CO2 can also form without exciting the molecule, and that could produce O2.” The apparatus Giapis designed to perform the reaction works like a particle accelerator, turning the CO2 molecules into ions by giving them a charge and then accelerating them using an electric field, albeit at much lower energies than are found in a particle accelerator. However, he adds that such a device is not necessary for the reaction to occur. “You could throw a stone with enough velocity at some CO2 and achieve the same thing,” he says. “It would need to be traveling about as fast as a comet or asteroid travels through space.” That could explain the presence of small amounts of oxygen that have been observed high in the Martian atmosphere. There has been speculation that the oxygen is being generated by ultraviolet light from the sun striking CO2, but Giapis believes the oxygen is also generated by high-speed dust particles colliding with CO2 molecules. He hopes that a variation of his reactor could be used to do the same thing at more useful scales — perhaps one day serving as a source of breathable air for astronauts on Mars or being used to combat climate change by pulling CO2, a greenhouse gas, out of Earth’s atmosphere and turning it into oxygen. He acknowledges, however, that both of those applications are a long way off because the current version of the reactor has a low yield, creating only one to two oxygen molecules for every 100 CO2 molecules shot through the accelerator. “Is it a final device? No. Is it a device that can solve the problem with Mars? No. But it is a device that can do something that is very hard,” he says. “We are doing some crazy things with this reactor.” The paper describing the team’s findings, titled “Direct dioxygen evolution in collisions of carbon dioxide with surfaces,” appears in the May 24 issue of Nature Communications.” Caltech co-authors include Tom Miller, professor of chemistry; Philip Shushkov, postdoctoral scholar in chemistry; and Yunxi Yao, postdoctoral researcher, formerly of of Caltech. Funding for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, and the U. S. Department of Energy. Source link

[teleindiscreta]

La ciencia por fin ha entendido cómo es posible que los cometas produzcan oxígeno si no albergan vida

Fuente original: La ciencia por fin ha entendido cómo es posible que los cometas produzcan oxígeno si no albergan vida Puedes ver más visitando Teleindiscreta - Las mejores noticias de actualidad, famosos, salud, belleza, cocina, motor, música y mucho más.

Imagen generado de 67p expulsando gas. Wikimedia Commons

Hace dos años los investigadores descubrieron que los cometas eran capaces de producir oxígeno (el mismo gas que respiramos los humanos). Desde entonces se ha tratado de buscar una explicación al misterio. Con la ayuda de la sonda Rosetta parece que el enigma ya tiene una explicación.

El descubrimiento de que los cometas producen oxígeno (oxígeno molecular) se produjo en el año 2015. En aquel entonces los investigadores estudiaban el cometa 67P con la sonda espacial Rosetta. La misión encontró de manera inesperada abundantes niveles de oxígeno molecular en la atmósfera del cometa.

El oxígeno molecular en el espacio es altamente inestable, ya que el oxígeno prefiere emparejarse con hidrógeno para producir agua o carbono que para producir dióxido de carbono. De hecho, el O2 sólo se ha detectado dos veces antes en el espacio en nebulosas que forman estrellas.

A partir de entonces los científicos han propuesto que el oxígeno molecular en el cometa 67P podría haberse descongelado de su superficie después de haber sido congelado dentro del cometa desde los albores del sistema solar hace 4.600 millones de años. El problema con esta teoría es que algunos científicos dicen que el oxígeno debe de haber reaccionado con otros productos químicos durante todo ese tiempo.

El sol como elemento catalizador

Imagen del trabajo de Giapis explicando cómo se forma el oxígeno molecular. Caltech

Es aquí donde aparece la figura de Konstantinos P. Giapis, un profesor de ingeniería en Caltech. El hombre se dedicó a observar los datos de Rosetta porque las reacciones químicas que ocurrían en la superficie del cometa eran similares a las que él ha estado realizando en el laboratorio en los últimos 20 años.

Giapis estudia las reacciones químicas que involucran átomos cargados a alta velocidad (o iones) colisionando con superficies de semiconductores. El profesor lo hace como un medio para crear procesadores informáticos más rápidos y memorias digitales más grandes para equipos y móviles. Según Giapis:

Comencé a interesarme por el espacio y buscaba lugares donde los iones se aceleraran contra las superficies. Después de mirar las mediciones realizadas en el cometa de Rosetta, en particular con respecto a las energías de las moléculas de agua que golpean el cometa, algo me hizo clic, lo que había estado estudiando durante años estaba sucediendo justo aquí en este cometa.

El estudio pasó a su laboratorio y acaba de publicarse en Nature junto a su colega Yunxi Yao. En el mismo demuestran cómo el cometa podría estar produciendo oxígeno.

67p. Wikimedia Commons

Básicamente, las moléculas de vapor de agua salen del cometa mientras el cuerpo cósmico es calentado por el sol. Las moléculas de agua se ionizan o se cargan por la luz ultravioleta del sol, y luego el viento del sol sopla las moléculas de agua ionizada hacia el cometa. Cuando las moléculas de agua golpean la superficie del cometa que contiene oxígeno unido a materiales como el óxido y la arena, las moléculas recogen otro átomo de oxígeno de estas superficies y se forma O2. Según explican los investigadores:

Hemos demostrado experimentalmente que es posible formar oxígeno molecular de manera dinámica en la superficie de materiales similares a los encontrados en el cometa. No teníamos ni idea cuándo construimos nuestras instalaciones de laboratorio que acabarían aplicando a la astrofísica de los cometas.

Este mecanismo químico se basa en la clase rara vez considerada de las reacciones de Eley-Rideal, las cuales ocurren cuando las moléculas de movimiento rápido, como en este caso el agua, chocan con las superficies y extraen los átomos que residen allí, formando nuevas moléculas.

Increíble, aunque lo más sorprendente como apuntan ambos, es que otros cuerpos (por ejemplo planetas más allá de nuestro sistema solar o exoplanetas) también podrían producir oxígeno molecular con un mecanismo similar, es decir, sin necesidad de “vida”. De ser así, el estudio podría influir en el futuro a la manera en la que buscamos vida en el espacio. [Phys]

Fuente: Gizmodo

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