The True Source of Earth's Water Could Be Wildly Different to What You Think
Nothing on Earth can live without water. The origin of water on Earth, therefore, is the origin of life in the Solar System (and the Universe) as we know it. Figuring out where and how our world obtained its water might be key to finding life on other worlds, but the truth is we don't know for sure where it came from. Nonetheless, it's commonly accepted that one potential mechanism for water delivery was bombardment from water-bearing asteroids and comets when Earth as we know it today was much younger. But a new analysis of rocks collected from the Moon and brought to Earth during the Apollo era suggests that this might not actually be the case. Rather, according to a team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the likeliest explanation is that Earth formed with its water. In other words, it was here all along. "Earth was either born with the water we have, or we were hit by something that was basically pure H2O, with not much else in it," explains cosmochemist Greg Brennecka of LLNL. "This work eliminates meteorites or asteroids as possible sources of water on Earth and points strongly toward the 'born with it' option." The Moon might seem a strange sort of place to look for Earth's water. It's dusty, dry, and extremely not wet at all.
Nothing on Earth can live without water. The origin of water on Earth, therefore, is the origin of life in the Solar System (and the Universe) as we know it. Figuring out where and how our world obtained its water might be key to finding life on other worlds, but the truth is we don't know for sure where it came from. Nonetheless, it's commonly accepted that one potential mechanism for water delivery was bombardment from water-bearing asteroids and comets when Earth as we know it today was much younger. But a new analysis of rocks collected from the Moon and brought to Earth during the Apollo era suggests that this might not actually be the case. Rather, according to a team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the likeliest explanation is that Earth formed with its water. In other words, it was here all along. "Earth was either born with the water we have, or we were hit by something that was basically pure H2O, with not much else in it," explains cosmochemist Greg Brennecka of LLNL. "This work eliminates meteorites or asteroids as possible sources of water on Earth and points strongly toward the 'born with it' option." The Moon might seem a strange sort of place to look for Earth's water. It's dusty, dry, and extremely not wet at all.