Scientists detect oxygen in noxious atmosphere of Venus

Oxygen accounts for about 21% of Earth's air, with the rest of our atmosphere primarily nitrogen. Using an instrument aboard the SOFIA airborne observatory—a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry an infrared telescope in a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center—scientists have now detected atomic oxygen in a thin layer sandwiched between two other layers of the Venusian atmosphere. The oxygen is produced on the planet's day side by ultraviolet radiation from the sun that breaks down atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into oxygen atoms and other chemicals, the researchers said. "This detection of atomic oxygen on Venus is direct proof for the action of photochemistry - triggered by solar UV radiation - and for the transport of its products by the winds of Venus' atmosphere," said astrophysicist and study co-author Helmut Wiesemeyer of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany. The oxygen's temperature was found to range from about minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit on the planet's day side to minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit on its night side.