Saturn's moon Rhea may have a breathable atmosphere

[Swede]

Saturn's icy moon Rhea has an oxygen and carbon dioxide atmosphere that is very similar to Earth's. Even better, the carbon dioxide suggests there's life - and that possibly humans could breathe the air.

It seems oxygen is far more abundant than we ever suspected, particularly on moons that seem to be completely frozen solid. We recently found evidence of oxygen on Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede, and now this finding on Europa. In fact, because the region of space surrounding Saturn's rings has an oxygen atmosphere, it's thought even more of the icy moons within the gas giant's magnetosphere likely have little atmospheres of their own.

According to new data from the Cassini probe, the moon's thin atmosphere is kept up by the constant chemical decomposition of ice water on the surface of Rhea. It's likely that Saturn's fierce magnetosphere is continually irradiating this ice water, which is what helps to maintain the atmosphere. Researchers suspect a lot of Rhea's oxygen isn't actually free right now, but is instead trapped inside Rhea's frozen oceans.

http://io9.com/5699149/saturns-moon-rhea-may-have-a-breathable-atmosphere?skyline=true&s=i

[Tesha]

1. "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there." (NT)

[Xipe Totec]

2. Nice quote! Apropos!

:thumbsup:

[brooklynite]

3. Too bad about the temperature though...

- 174 C in the sun...

[gtar100]

9. Maybe it's just in a natural cryogenic state, waiting.

Waiting for the possibility of temperatures rising just so much and for a signficant period of time to support life.

[Thor_MN]

10. Yeah, but it's a wet cold!!!

[femrap]

4. So let's send the

entire Bush administration there! OK? And all the greedy CEOs of the world as well.

[txlibdem]

8. Yeah, we'd build 'em a dome and everything!

Come on in rich F*KERS the water's fine!

[NickB79]

5. In what universe do the authors think that is a breathable atmosphere?

The atmospheric pressure would be so low your lungs would explode, even if the percentage of O2 and CO2 are similar to Earth's.

[qazplm]

6. very true

and of course the radiation would kill you pretty darn quick too, or the cold.

Still there is something surprising and interesting about the idea of another atmosphere that is primarily built of the same components of our own in our own solar system, it lends further credibility to the idea that other planets exist that could support terrestrial life.

[Posteritatis]

7. Maybe they tried breathing it for awhile before writing the headline. (nt)

[Thor_MN]

11. Don't be a Debbie Downer, if all you had to do was bring the pressure up

which would also warm it, it would be a heck of a lot easier than dealing with a vacuum or poisonous atmosphere, no?

[NickB79]

12. Well, yes, it would make a good candidate for terraforming

Exactly how we'd increase the temp. enough to achieve the desired results are still unknown, though, and likely will be for the next century, and wouldn't reach a breathable atmosphere until a few centuries after that.