Earth’s water may have been imported from the far reaches of the solar system
OCT 07, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025627
Ars Technica : When Earth first formed, it was dry; water came from meteorites and other bodies that collided with Earth afterward. Until recently only one type of meteorite had been found to have hydrogen and oxygen isotopes that matched those found in our oceans. Now, however, Paul Hartogh of the Max Plank Institute and colleagues have found a comet that has the same isotopes in the same ratio as Earth’s oceans. Named 103P/Hartley 2, it currently orbits Jupiter, but probably originated in the Kuiper belt just outside the orbit of Neptune. The discovery greatly increases the number of candidates that could have brought ocean-like water to Earth.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
