A study published Friday in the journal Science suggests that oxygen can be formed in a one-step process, in addition to the traditional two, by using a high-energy vacuum ultraviolet laser to excite carbon dioxide.

Researchers of the study, let by graduate student Zhou Lu of the University of California (UC) Davis, utilized a pair of high-power vacuum ultraviolet lasers to excite the carbon dioxide in laboratory experiments with an ion imaging apparatus created at UC Davis. Tech Times reports that the first laser splits the molecules into component atoms, and the second laser strips off the electrons of those atoms for spectrographic analysis.

“Previously, people believed that the abiotic (no green plants involved) source of molecular oxygen is by CO2 + solar light—> CO + O, then O + O + M—> O2 + M (where M represents a third body carrying off the energy released in forming the oxygen bond),” said Zhou in an e-mail message, according to UC Davis. “Our results indicate that O2 can be formed by carbon dioxide dissociation in a one step process. The same process can be applied in other carbon dioxide dominated atmospheres such as Mars and Venus.”

According to the study, these results provide implications for the non-biological production of oxygen in CO2-heavy atmospheres.

“This also provides insight into how oxygen can be found and produced on other planets,” said Brian Stallard of Nature World News, in a recent article. “If researchers could discern a way to speed up this one-step process, they could even find themselves looking at the first steps of a dramatic terraforming event.”