Oxygen envelops Saturn's icy moon

A NASA spacecraft sent some days ago a report about the presence of oxygen around one of Saturn's icy moons, Dione.

This discovery supports the theory which states every Saturn and Jupiter's moons might have oxygen around them. This is one step ahead to prove the hypothesis of life from the outer Earth.

At first glance, scientists were not sure enough this could be a real atmosphere, because its size is not big enough to host one. Several solid solar system bodies (Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn's largest moon, Titan) have atmospheres. The special fact about them is that they tend to be much denser than the one on Dione.

The discovery was made using the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini flew over Dione about two years ago. The board on the unmanned probe detected a thin layer of oxygen around the moon. What this means is that an atmosphere was not really found, but an 'exosphere', as the scientists prefer to name it.

The real importance of this importance relies on the fact that it suggests there is a process at work around the solar system's gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter, in which oxygen is released from their icy satellites.

Via BBC
Via NASA

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