Tag

Oxygen

All articles tagged with #oxygen

science18 days ago•6 min saved

Hidden Gondwanan Mountains Beneath Antarctica May Have Shaped Life's Rise

A new study of zircon grains from Antarctic-derived sediments shows that Himalayan-scale mountain belts formed during Gondwana’s assembly (about 650–450 million years ago). As these mountains eroded, they dumped nutrients and sediments into the oceans, boosting primary production and burial of organic carbon and pyrite—processes that could have raised atmospheric oxygen and aided the rise of animal life. The authors stop short of claiming a direct cause for the Cambrian explosion, and timing uncertainties remain, but the evidence suggests a powerful, ancient tectonic event under the ice may have helped shape Earth's biosphere.

via ScienceAlert|

#antarctica #geology #gondwana

science22 days ago•4 min saved

Earth’s oxygen era has a ticking clock: ends in about a billion years, study finds

A Nature Geoscience study using 400,000 computer-model simulations estimates that Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere will persist for about 1 billion more years, after which rapid deoxygenation could leave the planet with low oxygen, higher methane, and no ozone, potentially resembling pre-Great Oxidation Earth and affecting how we search for life on exoplanets.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|

#biosignatures #earth #exoplanets

space1 month ago•11 min saved

Ancient Oxygen in a 300‑Million‑Year‑Old Galaxy Reveals Early Stellar Enrichment

ALMA detected the ionised oxygen [O III] 88 μm line in JADES-GS-z14-0, a galaxy seen when the universe was under 300 million years old (z ≈ 14.18), confirming rapid heavy‑element production by early generations of massive stars. The inferred abundances are about 5–20% of solar (around 17% in some models), indicating fast chemical enrichment, while not pinning down specific stellar histories or supernovae.

via spacedaily.com|

#alma #early-universe #jwst

science1 month ago•7 min saved

Earth and Life: A Four-Billion-Year Dialogue

Nature's book review of Andrew Knoll's Earth & Life argues that life and Earth have co-evolved in a four-billion-year dialogue, with geobiology showing how microorganisms and planetary processes shaped Earth's atmosphere, especially oxygen via the Great Oxidation Event; Knoll contends that interpreting Earth's past requires assembling fragmentary rock records, testing hypotheses, and embracing uncertainty, while offering lessons for understanding modern climate change and the search for life on other planets.

via Nature|

#climate-change #earth-history #geobiology

science2 months ago•12 min saved

Heat Hampers Coral Cilia Oxygen Dance

New study shows coral polyps use cilia to whip water into vortices that bring oxygen to their tissues when photosynthesis from symbiotic algae isn’t active; as water warms, cilia move faster to compensate, but at higher temperatures they consume oxygen faster than it’s available and eventually slow or stop, linking heat to reduced oxygen delivery and contributing to bleaching and mortality in reefs.

via Quanta Magazine|

#bleaching #cilia #climate-change

science2 months ago•11 min saved

Phytoplankton: Earth's invisible oxygen factory rivaling forests

Phytoplankton in the sunlit ocean produce about half of Earth's oxygen via photosynthesis, but net atmospheric oxygen is the result of production minus respiration and decay; the ocean's microscopic, fast-renewing layer spans vast areas and can rival terrestrial forests in scale, with light, nutrients and water mixing governing where it happens. Satellites like NASA's PACE estimate productivity, but warming and nutrient pollution could reshape carbon cycling and marine ecosystems, underscoring the ocean as a giant, invisible engine linking sunlight, oxygen and food.

via Space Daily|

#carbon-cycle #ocean #oxygen

space2 months ago•11 min saved

Earth's Oxygen Gap Warns Planet-Hunting Telescopes May Miss Life

Life on Earth existed for about 3.5 billion years before atmospheric oxygen and ozone became detectable from afar. That means NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory could directly image an Earth-like planet and still find no decisive life signs if its atmosphere is oxygen-poor, underscoring that biosignatures are context‑dependent and that searches must rely on multiple gases and signals rather than oxygen alone.

via Space Daily|

#biosignatures #exoplanets #false-negatives

environment2 months ago•13 min saved

Oceanic oxygen loss could destabilize ecosystems, scientists warn

Scientists warn that dissolved oxygen in global oceans is falling rapidly due to warming, nutrient pollution, and algal blooms, threatening marine life across the food chain and possibly affecting climate regulation. Researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography say this aquatic deoxygenation should be added to the Planetary Boundaries framework to reflect its global importance, and note that recovery could take centuries without coordinated emissions cuts and nutrient controls.

via Oceanographic Magazine|

#algal-blooms #deoxygenation #environment

science3 months ago•11 min saved

Ocean Microbes Provide About Half of Earth’s Oxygen, With a Hidden Footnote

Phytoplankton in the sunlit ocean photosynthesize enough to supply about half of Earth's oxygen, with Prochlorococcus alone contributing up to a fifth; rainforests are not net producers since their oxygen output is offset by respiration and decay. Atmospheric oxygen is a long-term stock built over millions of years by buried carbon, not a daily plankton output. Satellites like NASA's PACE now help distinguish phytoplankton communities to refine these estimates and track ocean changes.

via Space Daily|

#ocean #oxygen #pace

entertainment3 months ago•1 min saved

Rod Stewart pauses Utah concert for onstage oxygen after nearly fainting

Rock icon Rod Stewart paused his Utah show to take oxygen from a tank after nearly fainting onstage, an moment some fans attributed to the venue’s high elevation (about 4,300 feet). He recovered, telling the crowd that the show must go on as he continued the performance. The tour—One Last Time—has a next date July 31 at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY, and TMZ reported he had recently been sidelined by laryngitis, which led to a canceled San Diego show.

via NBC News|

#altitude #concert-incident #entertainment

entertainment3 months ago•14 min saved

Rod Stewart uses oxygen onstage in Utah after near-fainting

Rod Stewart, 81, halted his Utah show to take oxygen onstage after nearly fainting, with altitude possibly a factor; the scare follows a run of health-related cancellations, including a recent San Diego gig, and the singer finished the set while seated. He has said he has no plans to retire and will continue his One Last Time tour.

via Page Six|

#concert #entertainment #health

space3 months ago•15 min saved

Mars air proof: Tiny MOXIE device demonstrates oxygen production on the Red Planet

NASA’s MOXIE, a microwave-sized instrument aboard the Perseverance rover, produced breathable oxygen from Martian CO2 between 2021 and 2023—5.4 g in its first hour and a total of 122 g across 16 runs—demonstrating that solid oxide electrolysis works on Mars and validating in-situ resource utilization in principle. However, turning this into a crewed-Mars capability would require a much larger, continuously powered system (targeting about 2–3 kg of O2 per hour and 25–30 kW) known as Big MOXIE, which is not yet built and faces significant engineering and mission challenges.

via Space Daily|

#in-situ-resource-utilization #mars #moxie

science-paleontology4 months ago•10 min saved

Oxygen-Fueled Sky Giants: Ancient Griffinflies Dwarfed by Predators Eventually

Meganeuropsis permiana and other griffinflies reached wingspans over 70 cm in an oxygen-rich Late Carboniferous–Early Permian atmosphere, but recent research suggests insect size was shaped by multiple factors—oxygen delivery, flight mechanics, and ultimately predation by birds and other aerial predators— meaning the giant-insect era ended as skies filled with competitors and oxygen levels shifted.

via Space Daily|

#griffinflies #insects #meganeuropsis

science4 months ago•13 min saved

From poison to breath: how cyanobacteria seeded Earth’s oxygen-rich world

Oxygen, now essential to life, started as a poisonous byproduct released by cyanobacteria about 2.4–2.5 billion years ago, triggering the Great Oxidation Event that poisoned much of the anaerobic biosphere and reshaped Earth’s chemistry. As some microbes adapted to oxygen, they evolved enzymes and aerobic respiration, enabling far more energy production and the rise of larger, more complex life. The modern atmosphere remains a steady-state maintained by ongoing photosynthesis, with cyanobacteria still producing oxygen today.

via Space Daily|

#aerobic-respiration #anaerobic #cyanobacteria

science4 months ago•11 min saved

Oxygen’s toxic rise: the Great Oxidation Event and Earth’s first mass extinction

Around 2.4 billion years ago, cyanobacteria started releasing oxygen through photosynthesis, and as sinks filled, oxygen accumulated in the oceans and air. That oxygen was poisonous to the dominant anaerobic life, sparking Earth’s first major mass extinction—the Great Oxidation Event. Evidence includes sulfur isotope patterns that indicate an oxygen-free atmosphere before 2.4 Ga and their disappearance after, and the widespread formation of banded iron formations as iron was oxidized. Oxygen’s rise also collapsed methane, possibly helping trigger the long Huronian glaciation. The fossil record is sparse and the transition was uneven and gradual, not a single moment, but it marks a pivotal shift as life adapted to breathe oxygen.

via Space Daily|

#banded-iron-formations #cyanobacteria #great-oxidation-event