As a result of the tremendous amount of water on our stunning planet, Earth is called the ‘Blue Planet’. Scientists may now have figured out how water came to exist on Earth. Water covers 70% of the planet’s surface. Scientists suspected that the water came from a group of asteroids called ‘carbonaceous asteroids’ or simply ‘C-type asteroids’. This gap may now have been filled. If asteroids were the sole source of Earth’s water, their water should have been laced with deuterium. Deuterium is essentially a heavier version of hydrogen.
Did the sun give us water?
As it turns out, our Sun is likely responsible for the formation of water on Earth. Considering that solar winds are charged with hydrogen and helium, hydrogen ions would interact with oxygen atoms in the asteroid if they were in contact with asteroids or even asteroid dust.
Read more: North Koreans starve, yet make their own candy with an eye on Kim’s birthday
Based on samples from asteroid Itokawa brought to Earth in 2010 by the Japanese space agency’s Hayabusa space probe, the first evidence for the Sun’s role in Earth’s water bodies was confirmed. According to a paper published on Monday in Nature Astronomy, the Sun is one of the likely contributors to water on Earth. Combining hydrogen from solar winds with deuterium from asteroids gives Earth’s water its structure.
Post Your Comments