Almost half of all the water existent on our home planet may predate it, or even the Sun, according to a study published last Thursday in the prestigious magazine Science. According to the report – The ancient heritage of water ice in the solar system – signed by L. Ilsedore Cleeves, Edwin A. Bergin, Conel M. O’D. Alexander, Fujun Du, Dawn Graninger, Karin I. Öberg, Tim J. Harries from the University of Michigan, up to 50 per cent of the water currently found on Earth might be as old as 4.5 billion years, predating even the creation of the Sun.
The study has found that there is a distinct chemical present in the waters of our planet that is also present in the whole solar system. This is only possible if the water was created before the planets, moons and even our Sun. Scientists are currently trying to determine how the water has found its way to our planet, as the protoplanetary disk in which all planets were born was simply too hot for water in liquid or solid form (ice) to exist there. There are multiple theories circulating about this matter – time will tell which will prove to be the correct one.
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According to a theory, most of the water we currently have on our planet has come from the outside, probably carried by a series of comets crashing into Earth over the millions of years after its birth. The finding has other implications as well. According to scientists, some exoplanets – planets existing outside our solar system – might also have the right conditions for bearing life, and the same chances to bear water as our own. “By identifying the ancient heritage of Earth’s water, we can see that the way in which our solar system was formed will not be unique, and that exoplanets will form in environments with abundant water,” says Tim J. Harries of the University of Exeter, one of the members of the research team.