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Nothing would excite astronomers more than discovering a planet somewhere out there with obvious signs of life, but that has not happened yet. We believe that the Earth is special enough for its ability to promote life and, as far as we know, there are some essential elements to life, including liquid water.
Japan sent its Hayabusa probe on the asteroid known as Itokawa in 2003, and seven years later, it returned to the surface of the Earth with a sample of the space rock stored inside. These samples have aroused great interest from the scientific community, and a new research paper reveals that tiny particles of material contain something that could tell us a lot about our own planet: water.
We will never know with complete certainty where the Earth has been supplied with water, but theories are not lacking. One of these assumptions is that the Earth has benefited from asteroid bombardment during its formative years and that these asteroids contain ice water.
It would obviously have taken an incredible number of impacts from countless objects to provide enough water to the Earth to form its oceans, but it is one of the best assumptions for which we live now in an aqueous world. This makes sense, but scientists crave for evidence to support and Itokawa seems to have provided them.
The paper, which was published in Progress of science, reveals that pyroxene grains containing up to 988 parts per million water were found in small samples collected at Itokawa. Despite the dry and dusty appearance of space rock, it seems to carry water.
"Asteroids like Itokawa, which formed inside the snow layer, could therefore constitute a potential source of water (up to 0.5 oceanic ocean) during the formation of the Earth and other terrestrial planets, "suggest the researchers.
It is far from being a definitive decision on the theme of the water of the Earth, but it is an important step to explain how some planets get their water and an essential element of life as we know it.
Image Source: ISAS / JAXA
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