Scientists believe they have detected a form of oxygen created by living organisms in space surrounding our planet, as per a new study outlining their findings.
The new discovery, made using data from NASA's now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) flying telescope, could help develop new methods for tracing life on distant habitable exoplanets.
NASA's SOFIA telescope was retired in late 2022 due in large part to budget issues. The telescope was mounted aboard an adapted Boeing 747 that would fly to an altitude of up to 42,000 ft (12,800 m). This took it above 99.9 percent of the water vapor on Earth, which blocks much of the infrared light that would otherwise reach observatories on the ground.
Now though, a new study published in the journal Physical Review Research details how researchers used archival data from the telescope to detect heavy atomic oxygen in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, the mesosphere, and the lower thermosphere.
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