Oxygen-rich atmosphere found on Saturn moon

Look out people..it's 'widespreading'

Oxygen-rich atmosphere found on Saturn moon

Surprising discovery on Rhea marks first time such an atmosphere found on a Saturn satellite
By Mike Wall



Saturn's second-largest moon Rhea has a wispy atmosphere with lots of oxygen and carbon dioxide, a new study has found.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected Rhea's atmosphere during a close flyby of the frozen moon in March. The discovery marks the first time an oxygen-rich atmosphere has been found on a Saturn satellite. [ Photo of the Saturn moon Rhea.]
Oxygen atmospheres are known to exist on other natural satellites in our solar system. For example, Europa and Ganymede two frigid moons of Jupiter are also rich in oxygen.
But the discovery on Rhea suggests that many other large, ice-covered bodies throughout the solar system and beyond may harbor thin shells of oxygen-rich air and, perhaps, complex chemistry, researchers said.
"We've seen this happening at Jupiter, and now we've confirmed it on a Saturn moon," study lead author Ben Teolis, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, told SPACE.com. "The fact that it's widespread is very exciting."

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