Breathable Oxygen found in a galaxy 581 million light years away from Milky Way

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists for the first time ever have identified breathable oxygen in a galaxy outside the boundary of the Milky Way. The discovery was made by the Shanghai Astronomical and their team of astronomers led by Junzhi Wang. The discovery was made by analyzing light particles from a galaxy that is around 581 million lights years away. The origin has been identified as a galaxy named Markarian 231. 

100x the amount of oxygen as in the Milky Way

According to reports, the presence of oxygen and other gasses have historically made it very difficult to get accurate readings of light waves from distant galaxies. This making it almost impossible to get accurate readings.

But fortunately for us, the light waves from Markarian 231 came from a Quasi-stellar object or QSO. QSOs are distant objects that have a star-like appearance but at the same time emit light that has been redshifted. Redshifted light waves travel at a significantly lower wave frequency than standard light waves. Because they were low-frequency light waves, they were able to pass through Earth's atmosphere without its effects being distorted.

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The light readings from Markarian 231 were intercepted at IRAM 30-meter telescope in Granada, Spain and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array telescope in the French Alps. Reports have indicated that that the scientists believe that there could be 100 times more oxygen in the Markarian 231 galaxy as in the Milky Way.

So far oxygen has been detected in 2 other locations in the Milky Way galaxy, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud and the Orion nebula.  According to the reports, humans can only breathe pure oxygen for short periods of time. In order to survive the human body requires other gases like nitrogen and carbon. 

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Breathing pure oxygen for long periods of time can cause permanent damage to your lungs. It may even cause oxygen toxicity. Oxygen toxicity can lead to blood haemoglobin being overwhelmed with more oxygen molecules than it can carry.     

(with inputs from agencies)

(Image Credits: Pixabay)