Why is there no oxygen in space?

Question

We know this for fact but what is the reason?
And why then is it not present near other planets?????


Some sensible answers please.......
The best one gets 10!!!

Answer 1

There is oxygen in space. well a little bit anyway. a molecule here.. then maybe another one 100 miles away from the first. Certainly not enough to breath or be useful for anything at all.

Oxygen like all other things is attracted by gravity. The gravity of a planet draws all things within its gravitational field intowards itself. So any matter near by will be pulled towards the planet. Only an object with sufficient energy to escape the gravitational field will not be pulled in. THis is why things in the universe tend to cluster together in planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc.

The answer as to why certain elements exist in some places and not in others is still somewhat a mystery. We can assume that it was the result of the big bang. When the big bang occured it threw matter off into the universe at extremly high speeds. To this day the universe is still expanding. However it did not cast off everything in a uniform pattern. Imagine filling a jar with marbles of different colors. then blowing it up. would you expect a uniform distribution of all different colors? probably not.
Some areas might end up with no marbles. Some might have more than others. By random chance one area might have more of one color than another. The same is true for oxygen.

Answer 2

You have in fact brought up two interesting questions here:

1) Why is there no *atmosphere* in space, and

2) Why do other planets' atmospheres not contain oxygen.

I'll do my best to answer both.

First, air is made of a mixture of many many gas molecules. While these molecules are very tiny, they still do have a weight, so gravity still acts on them. Therefore, gas is generally going to be pulled down by high gravity bodies in space, like stars and planets.

In fact, all planets do have some sort atmosphere. Mars, for instance, has an atmosphere which is about 1/3 the size of our atmosphere (which makes sense, because Mars is significantly lighter than Earth, and thus has less gravity).

The question then is, since other planets have atmospheres, why can't we breathe on them? The answer is that their atmospheres don't have oxygen.

The oxygen that we need to live comes from photosynthesis, a process that occurs in all green plants. Plants take in Carbon Dioxide (a gas that historically comes from volcanoes, and is found in many planet's atmospheres) and they breathe out oxygen. So, if other planets grew lots of plant life, they too would have oxygen rich atmospheres.

Answer 3

Actually, there is oxygen in space, however, the majority of it has already been captured gravitationally by stars, planets, or other celestial bodies.

So space is *almost* a perfect vacuum, but gas and dust particles do float around out there. These particles are referred to as the interstellar medium by astronomers.

According to Thomas Arny's "Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy," if we were to compare the amount of gas in interstellar space to the air we breathe, it would be like "one marble in a box 5 miles on a side compared to the same box filled completely with marbles." So needless to say, there
isn't very much oxygen in outer space, but there is some. And the reason there isn't more is simply that the gravity of all the other various celestial objects out there, including galaxies, has captured most of the gas and dust.

For further reading, check out Thomas Arny's "Explorations: An Introduction
to Astronomy" or, for a more in-depth look, "Fundamental Astronomy" by
H.Kartunen, P.Kroger, H.Oja, M.Poutanen, and K.J.Donner.

Answer 4

There is only one planet where gaseous oxygen is found: Earth! And the only reason that Earth has oxygen is because Earth has plants that do photosynthesis. There is no other natural process that we know of that will put significant amounts of oxygen into a planet's atmosphere.

So that is bad news if you'd like to live on another planet in our Solar System. However, it does mean that if we ever find a planet around another star that has oxygen in its atmosphere, we can be fairly confident that there is life of some kind on that planet.

Answer 5

It isn't only oxygen, there is no nitrogen or carbon dioxide or any gas in space. Space is just that, empty space. There is just too much space and not enough air to fill it up, so most of outer space is completely empty. In comparison, planets like Earth are under a sea of air. The air really does behave like a sea, with the air filling in low areas just like water does. Gravity keeps the air trapped on planets just like it keeps water trapped. It is just that the air has no sharp surface; it gets thinner gradually with altitude.

Answer 6

There is oxygen is space, because the earth is in space and we have oxygen here.

Oxygen is extremely volatile, and combines with other substances very easily. The only way it exists as a free element on earth is because plant life is constantly producing it from carbon dioxide. In other words, you will not find free oxygen on any planet unless there is life.

Answer 7

if there is no air up in space, there is no oxygen, however, the space station has machines that produce oxygen that is why it is possible to live up there for six months. and to those that have said that the earth provides the oxygen, Earth and Outer space are two completely different things. space is otherwise known as a vaccumm, where there is NO AIR (think of a vaccumm packed bag, there is no air in there)

Answer 8

ah! Great question!

Could it be that planet earth is unique? It certainly is in our solar system. The nearest star to our solar system is devoid of planets! So, let's admit that we are in a unique place and as far as we know, that is true for at least 5+ or more light years distance from us in any direction.

Smart folk would take care of this unique environment where the balance of life is so very delicate.

Answer 9

Coz theres no plants in space. Oxygen from earth coulnt get out coz of the thick ozone layer.