Tea at Trianon: Oxygen on Venus

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Oxygen on Venus

From IFL Science:

For the first time, oxygen atoms have been detected in the dayside atmosphere of Venus without being part of larger molecules. Although oxygen has previously been observed on Venus’ night side, the same study found it to be far more widespread than previously observed. The findings are considered a step towards the future missions to Venus that are now increasingly on space agencies’ agendas.
No one doubts Venus has plenty of oxygen in its atmosphere. With oxygen being the third most common element in the universe, we could have confidently predicted its presence there before the first spacecraft flew by. When those missions did investigate Venus at close range, they revealed an atmosphere laden with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (CO₂ and CO), whose names alone make clear the oxygen contribution.
However, oxygen is an extremely reactive element, so on planets, it usually binds to other elements in the crust or atmosphere. Consequently, the presence of atomic oxygen is far from a given. Nevertheless, observations of Venus’ atmosphere by the Venus Express satellite have previously revealed some atomic oxygen glowing on its night side. Newly published observations not only show oxygen is much more prevalent than that, but also offer some insight into the processes that create and distribute it.
Professor Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers of the German Aerospace Center and colleagues used the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to look for oxygen in Venus’ upper atmosphere at 17 locations and found it at all of them.
The oxygen is formed through sunlight breaking up CO₂ and CO molecules. The powerful Venusian winds sweep the atoms to the night side, where they combine into molecular oxygen (O₂, like in our atmosphere), before reacting with other elements. Despite this redistribution, oxygen densities are up to five times higher on the dayside than the night.
According to the team, atomic oxygen is abundant enough to play an important role in the atmosphere. When an oxygen atom strikes a carbon dioxide molecule, it gives the molecule energy that is then radiated away at 15 micrometers. This is the dominant cooling method in the upper layers of Venus’ atmosphere; the Solar System’s hottest planet would be even hotter without this process. (Read more.)