Molecular oxygen observed in star-forming region

BBC : The European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory has observed molecular oxygen in a cosmic setting. Although oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium, finding it in its familiar diatomic form has proven difficult—until now. Paul Goldsmith of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and his collaborators have taken advantage of Herschel‘s 3.5-meter sintered silicon carbide mirror and its high-resolution far-IR spectrometer to identify the spectral signature of vibrationally excited O ₂ molecules in the Orion Nebula, a region of active star formation. Goldsmith and his coauthors report their findings in a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal. They speculate that the O ₂ was originally stuck to dust grains and incorporated into pieces of dirty ice. Starlight then baked off the O ₂.