A new mechanism for Oxygen production does not require plants at all Earth’s atmosphere was once believed to have been filled with Carbon Dioxide just like the surface of Mars and Venus. However, after the plants came into existence, they started to maintain a balance of Oxygen in a period called the Great Oxygenation Event. We all know how plants use photosynthesis to convert Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen. A recent study has suggested that there is another method of producing Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide, which has always been unknown to us. The findings explain how the earth’s surface had evolved in the beginning and it is believed that even though plants produce most of the Oxygen, some of it already existed, before the photosynthetic beings even came into existence. According to the first assumptions, the scientists said that the Oxygen came into being when the Oxygen atoms started to collide and react to form O2 instead of the O2 splitting from a Carbon Dioxide (CO2) compound. When the light breaks a CO2 molecule, it automatically splits into Carbon monoxide (CO) and Oxygen (O). However, another theory suggested that the Carbon Dioxide compound could also be split into an oxygen molecule (O2) and Carbon atom (C). This process was though only a theory and no-one had ever discovered such a process. Cheuk-Yiu Ng, a physical chemist at the University of California, and his colleagues made it possible when they had built an instrument to divide a carbon Dioxide molecule using ultra violet light in a vacuum. The machine is made up of two lasers, one of which splits up the CO2 while the other one detects the fragments that are produced. When the first laser was shone on the gas, the second laser instantly detected the split up O2 molecules and the carbon atoms. The total output suggested about 5% of CO2 processed into oxygen. Though on a small scale, the experiment proved that Oxygen can be extracted from CO2 through a non-biological process. The researchers understand that the invention can be used to disintegrate the molecules in the atmosphere or on other planets. But before that, additional research is required on the process to know the dynamics of this reaction. Moreover, such an experimented might not have been thought of before as creating such intense ultraviolet vacuum light was difficult. Hence, if this research reaches the success that the scientists are expecting, they might as well be able to create Oxygen on other planets, therefore allowing life to exist. In addition, the introduction of one element might promote the existence of other elements on the new planets as well. For example, the existence of oxygen would make it easy for humans to live on Mars, which will lead to the creation of CO2 as well. This can further result in plantations and hence, a complete oxygen cycle.
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