Origin of Earth's water: New study challenges old theories
The latest findings by scientists suggest that Earth may have had water from the very beginning, not from cosmic collisions. This discovery could change our understanding of planetary formation.
Scientists discovered that meteorites similar to those that formed early Earth might contain hydrogen in the form of hydrogen sulphide. This finding may suggest that our planet could have formed from materials that already contained the components needed for water creation. The study results were published in the scientific journal "Icarus".
Earth may have had water from the beginning
Earth has a chemical composition similar to anhydrous rocky bodies known as enstatite chondrites. For years, scientists believed that water must have come from objects from the outer Solar System that bombarded Earth. However, research from 2020 showed that enstatite chondrites contain hydrogen, which could have reacted with oxygen on early Earth to form water. The main author of the study, James Bryson from the University of Oxford, and his team suspected that hydrogen might have been bonded with sulphur in the meteorites.
The researchers used X-ray absorption spectroscopy to look for traces of hydrogen bonded with sulphur in an enstatite chondrite found in 2012 in Antarctica. They discovered more hydrogen than expected, in the form of hydrogen sulphide, suggesting that Earth might have contained hydrogen from the time of its formation. "The abundant hydrogen indicates that Earth could have contained hydrogen since the planet’s formation," Bryson wrote in an email to Live Science.
Additional hydrogen could have come from Antarctic ice
However, not all scientists are convinced. Conel Alexander, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, notes that these chondrites might be contaminated with water already on Earth. "When they enter the Earth's atmosphere and see water and even oxygen, they're going to start reacting quite quickly," he told Live Science. Additional hydrogen could have come from Antarctic ice and melted water around the meteorite before it was discovered.
Although researchers tried to avoid studying areas that visibly reacted with water, the latest chondrite found could eventually confirm the origin of hydrogen. "The perfect thing would be for a sample of an enstatite chondrite to fall to Earth, and we scoop it up immediately and stick it into a water-free, oxygen-free environment and keep it there," added Alexander.
