back to article Rosetta probe delivers jaw-to-the-floor find: Molecular oxygen

Rosetta has both delighted and upset astronomers after the probe sent back data that indicates the discovery of molecular oxygen on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scientists are excited because the O2, detected in the thin cloud of stuff surrounding the comet, is going to give them a pile of new science; and upset …

  1. Martin 47

    So the comets atmosphere is almost 4% oxygen? OK it's 4% of not a lot but bloody hell 'jaw dropping' is pretty apt.

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

      its only 20% on earth

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Even if the comet's atmosphere was 20% oxygen like Earth you couldn't breath there, since that atmosphere is a lot thinner on the comet than it is on Earth.

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Alien

    Dunno what they're surprised about...

    All it takes is a few cyanobacteria... oh, wait...

  3. bazza Silver badge
    Pint

    I love the sound theories make...

    ...when they evaporate after someone heats them up with some actual measurements.

    Sort of a "whoompf" type sound. There may be a cloud of smoke.

    Unfortunatley it's usually closely followed by the sound theoriticians make when they learn that all their previous papers are wrong.

    Sort of a "sniffle" sound.

    There's no sound quite like it for cheering up the experimentalists!

    Beers all round I think.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I love the sound theories make...

      Like many real scientific advances, the cry is not 'eureka' but 'that's odd'.

      Maybe we have been assuming that life is only associated with planets, but there maybe other types that wake from deep freeze on comets.

      1. Yugguy

        Re: I love the sound theories make...

        No - the sound is "BASTARD!!! I based my grant funding around the old science. Ooh. Maybe I can fudge the results?"

        1. Paul Kinsler

          Re: the sound is "BASTARD!!! I based my grant funding around the old science.

          Not really. If the funding has already been awarded, you just use it to do some science in the same area, but based on the new data.

          The "BASTARD!" would come in if you've just /submitted/ an application whose premise is ruined by the new data; because it now has 0% of getting funded (instead of e.g. 30%), and all the work writing it will have been for naught.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I love the sound theories make...

          "BASTARD!!! I based my grant funding around the old science. Ooh. Maybe I can fudge the results?"

          No need, no worries. Just link it to Climate Change.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I love the sound theories make...

            "No need, no worries. Just link it to Climate Change."

            But be sure trace the funding to see if it is directly or indirectly from one of the energy giants. Otherwise, how will you know what conclusions to draw?

      2. Faceless Man

        Re: I love the sound theories make...

        Maybe we have been assuming that life is only associated with planets, but there maybe other types that wake from deep freeze on comets.

        Great, now I'm thinking of some Elder God sleeping in there, and we're only going to wake it up if we keep flying probes past it...

    2. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: I love the sound theories make...

      Plenty of examples in history of pure theory informing and guiding the experimentalists.

    3. Stevie

      Re: I love the sound theories make...

      You are aware that the theories about solar system formation work from the outside in? As in, they start assuming an homogenous mix of interstellar crap and get refined on observation accounting for the clumpy nature of realty.

      This is how science works. The sound you are listening for almost never happens as it is associated with the other major explanitory technique - "God did it. Stop asking questions."

      And one comet a solar system formation theory does not destroy.

  4. Breen Whitman

    But the sexist shirt? Shouldn't that take precedence?

  5. Ilmarinen

    Ozone?

    Isn't Ozone more reactive than diatomic Oxygen (so even less likely to be found on the loose)?

  6. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Boffin

    One vaguely wonders

    if comets have been spraying the Earth with ozone forever ? Yet (another) example of how the universe interacts.

  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Happy

    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

    Let's go!

    Comet Base One!

  8. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Trollface

    Isn't oxygen a metabolite...

    ... of the great Ort Cloud space dragon?

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: Isn't oxygen a metabolite...

      It's the giant space goat, I tell ya!

      Round up the marketeers, lawyers, bankers, middle management, and politicians, get them on the B-ark, pronto!

      (Uh, let's hang on to the telephone sanitizers this time.)

  9. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Well, it was CO2 but the carbon converted to a smegging humongous diamond in the middle of the comet. What's left is O2. Now that would be jaw dropping,

  10. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Comet .NE. planet

    Maybe planets are bigger than comets - duh.

    Maybe the energies involved go up as some power of the body's mass. Maybe a tiny comet would retain primordial oxygen, while heavier planets import sufficient kinetic energy with each mass contribution that they get hot enough to bake the oxygen, as well as melt rocks.

    I seem to recall that another famous comet, Shoemaker-Levy, achieved a fairly high temperature as it contributed its mass to the planet Jupiter. Any primordial oxygen accompanying Shoemaker-Levy would have done what? Hmmm...?

    This all appears to be perfectly obvious. Any primordial oxygen hovering around the planets?

    (PS. I've met Levy. Lovely chap. Autographed my copy of his book.)

  11. John H Woods Silver badge

    Euphemism award

    "We think this result is of interest beyond the cometary community" -- best euphemism we've seen for a few years, surely?

    1. Bleu

      Re: Euphemism award

      Dear Little Mouse.

      Euphemism != understatement.

      1. John H Woods Silver badge

        Re: Euphemism award

        Dear Supercillious Bleu

        It is an understatement for "This is an extremely interesting result for everybody."

        It is a euphemism for "FUCKING HELL, LOOK AT THIS!"

        Sorry you were not able to grasp that, did you need the joke alert?

        PS: I am not Little Mouse

        1. Bleu

          Re: Euphemism award

          I am sorry to have mistaken you for Little Mouse.

          Mainly, I must apologise to Little Mouse, who probably would not confuse euphemism with understatement.

          Although my mistaken comment seems to have amused a few, likely including the Mouse.

          I am not sure that you know the meaning of 'supercilious', but you have a good line in blowing a fuse.

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. John H Woods Silver badge

            Re: Euphemism award

            @Bleu, sorry for blowing a fuse, having some issues at the moment and suffering a severe sense of humour failure which I hope would be considered out of character. Apologies anyway.

  12. Little Mouse

    One spark and the whole lot might go up!

    In hindsight, maybe it was a good thing that the harpoons failed to deploy....

  13. Elmer Phud

    " it's not really supposed to be there"

    and that's why science is so fucking great

  14. Stevie

    Bah!

    In a related news item, the radio signals from Barnard's Star have been decrypted. Messgae reads:

    Made you look, Earthling!

  15. James Hughes 1

    CHON food.

  16. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    "usually turns up bound to other atoms and molecules (or with itself"

    The kinky little bastard.

    Right, stop pushing, I'm going !

  17. Faux Science Slayer

    "New Think Progress and the Ozzard of Wiz"

    Do not 'believe' any of the Ministry of Truth news outlets, including 'Discover', 'Nature', et al....

    or the INGSOC controlled EPA, NASA, NOAA cabal....see titled article at FauxScienceSlayer....

    Every atom and molecule in the Universe is under constant erosion from radiant energy and particle bombardment decay. The EPA demonized Nitrous Oxide in diesel exhaust combines with natural plant produced Isocene, C5H8 to produce the dreaded, GROUND LEVEL OZONE, producing fictitious 'asthma' symptoms. Ozone, O3 has a half life of thirty minutes, partly due to reactive nature and partly because it absorbs cancer causing UVA, a health benefit the WEAPONIZED EPA refuses to recognize. Ozone at 84 PPB in the atmosphere is NO problem. Ozone at one PPM has been used for domestic water treatment in Paris and thousand of other cities for over a century. Read

    "New Think Progress and the Ozzard of Wiz"....reject totalitarian PROGRAMMING.

  18. JCitizen
    Pint

    Well..

    if we would bomb Mars with enough of these comets, and the watery kind, we would soon replenish the atmosphere there. ----- For a while...

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