How was water created on Earth? – The new finding of scientists

A new study of space dust shows that water on Earth may have once been created in space with the help of the solar wind, the stream of charged solar particles that the Sun constantly emits. For the first time, there is strong evidence that – rather unexpectedly – our star may have played a key role in the presence of water on our planet, as it seems that its “wind” is able to radiate and turn grains into water. dust in space.

Researchers from different countries, led by Luke Daly of the School of Geography and Geosciences at the University of Glasgow, who published the paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, analyzed samples taken by the Japanese ship “Hayalebusa” Itokava “in 2010.

Using the technique of atomic tomography, they measured the structure of the asteroid dust grains and detected water molecules. The latter were formed when hydrogen ions from the solar wind collided with dust particles from the space rock, changing their chemical composition.

“Over time, the effect of hydrogen ions in combination with oxygen atoms from rock materials creates water trapped inside the asteroid,” Daly said. The water molecules found in the asteroid “Itokava” are similar – in terms of isotopes – to the water molecules on Earth.

Researchers speculate that this may be the answer to the older theory that asteroids brought water to our planet when they fell on it. Professor Phil Blunt of the University of Curtin in Australia estimated that enough water equivalent to 20 liters of water per cubic meter of rock was discovered in Itokawa, so it is possible that a significant amount of water was transported to Earth by asteroids billions of years ago.

An additional explanation is that the contribution of the solar wind to the creation of water in space dust can work directly and not only through the “mediation” of asteroids as water carriers on Earth, as before the creation of a planet is in the form of a dust disk and rocks in orbit around a star. These constituents, under the influence of the solar wind, may have acquired water in them almost from the beginning.

As the US Space Agency (NASA) and other space agencies prepare to establish permanent bases on the Moon, the discovery paves the way for pumping water directly from the dust to the surface of the moon or planets in the future.

Researchers are waiting to study the new samples collected by the Japanese spacecraft “Hayabusa 2” and brought to Earth in 2020, in order to confirm their theory.

Link to the scientific publication: https: //www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01487-w

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