Scientists have a new theory on the origin of water on Earth

The researchers have come up with a new theory on the origin of the Earth's water.

According to Science Daily, a team of geoscientists from Arizona State University says that the Earth's water could come from both an asteroid material and gas left behind by the formation of the Sun.

Where does the water come from and how did it arrive on Earth? Questions that scientists have struggled to find a concrete answer in the past.

One of the co-authors of the study said: "It's a bit of a blind spot in the community."

According to the American Geophysical Union, this new study challenges previous theories about hydrogen in the water of the Earth. The study notes that several scientists have historically supported a theory that the water of the Earth comes from asteroids, due to the similarity of seawater and water. water found in asteroids.

However, ASU researchers believe that the element came partly from remaining dust clouds and gases after the formation of the Sun, that is, from the "solar nebula", according to a process called "isotopic fractionation". This would have seen hydrogen attracted to the center of the Earth billions of years ago, which eventually led to the addition of water to a young Earth. The hydrogen and the rare gases would have been sucked by the large embryo covered with magma to form an early atmosphere.

The theory also foresees the possibility that the hydrogen of the nebula, which contains less deuterium and is lighter than the asteroid hydrogen, dissolves in the molten iron of the magma ocean and remains there while hydrogen, who is attracted by the iron, is delivered to the metal. Estimates based on this model show that part of the Earth's water came from the solar nebula.

The new research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.