The phosphorus-oxygen bond is so strong that it is resistant to breakage over the range of the Earth's surface temperatures. But when a phosphorus-containing compound finds itself in a biological ...

Purifying phosphorus. When phosphorus is mined out of the ground, it is in the form of phosphate, a mineral whose basic unit comprises one atom of phosphorus bound to four oxygen atoms.

Instead, high levels of oxygen like those found on Earth could occur on exoplanets too. This makes the odds of us locating an exoplanet with a high-oxygen atmosphere much higher.

Phosphorus also plays a key role in the cycles of such biologically essential elements as nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Because of analytical limitations, little was known about phosphorus cycling ...

Low phosphorus abundance could make an inhabited planet appear uninhabited, because of the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere, when in reality their biosphere is just too small to create a viable ...

Oxygen, phosphorus and early life on Earth Date: November 17, 2013 Source: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Summary: ...

It's happy 350th birthday to the discovery of phosphorus, an element that is essential for life as we know it. ... oxygen. More than a century after that, ...

Scientists have discovered phosphorus on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn, NASA said Wednesday. The element, which is essential to planetary habitability, had never before been detected ...

Pure phosphorus does not exist in nature, but instead is bound up with oxygen, as phosphate, and this molecular trade union, the phosphorus-oxygen bond, “is central to why biology works ...

New research into the composition of supernova remnants suggests phosphorus might be isolated in parts of the galaxy—and phosphorus is a requirement for life as we know it.