Oxygen has been found in Mars' atmosphere, but before you go thinking about moving to the first Mars colony, there are a few things you should know.

Yes, a study published this week in Astronomy & Astrophysics announced the detection of oxygen in the upper atmosphere of Mars.

But it's not the oxygen you think it is. Unlike the O2 we know and love that allows us to breathe here on Earth, the oxygen detected on Mars is just plain O, atomic oxygen. And it's not the first time atomic oxygen has been detected in Mars' atmosphere: it was first discovered 40 years ago during the Viking and Mariner missions.

Still, the new findings confirm the initial ones and give valuable insight into the air on and around the Red Planet.

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"Atomic oxygen affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere," Kassandra Bell of the SOFIA Science Center wrote in a press release for NASA. "Scientists detected only about half the amount of oxygen expected, which may be due to variations in the Martian atmosphere."

Mars likely once had much more oxygen, but the source is still unknown.

"Ultimately, its presence influences how fast the atmosphere is disappearing into space," Robin Andrews writes for IFL Science. "Understanding the atomic oxygen segment of the Martian atmosphere will allow researchers to gain a better understanding of why it was all but obliterated over the last few billions of years."

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