We all know that our Earth is old, and so is our sun. But did you ever think that water could be older than the both of them?
Source: IOP
It has always been a mystery on how our earth came to be, and how water became part of it. But there has been one prevailing theory that says that 4.6 billion years ago, water came to our earth from ice specks that were floating in a cosmic cloud even before our sun went ablaze.
According to astrophysicists’ calculations, half of all the water on earth may be from that interstellar gas. This could mean that the same water we are drinking and the bodies of water on our earth may be millions of years older than our solar system!
This shows how ancient water in the interstellar cloud covered the solar system as the sun and planets were formed.
Source: Fundacionaquae
The astrophysicists believe that some of the ancient ice made it through the solar system’s chaotic creation and found its way to earth. Researchers analysed the oceans’ water molecules for clues of their history.
The ice floating on the water is made from normal water (H2O), while the ice on the bottom is made from heavy water (D2O)
Source: Scind
The clue was through finding “heavy water”. Heavy water has water molecules that contain hydrogen’s twin—deuterium. Water rich with deuterium is found on other planets and moons, even here on our world, but researchers aren’t really sure where they came from. An idea is that most of the heavy water formed in the interstellar cloud then found its way across the solar system.
The researchers concluded that remnants of that ice remain scattered in our solar system. This includes the moon, different planets, and even your water bottle. So, let’s drink to that! Cheers!
