A distant protostar dubbed the V883 Orionis recently gave researchers significant information that water formation around its gaseous discs may help to form comets and planets before a star is born. This also opens up a study regarding the Earth's water being older than the bright yellow star in our Solar System, the Sun.
V883 Orionis' Water Composition Provides Clues to the Solar System
A press release from EurekAlert details how their recent study's findings may be the basis of upcoming research behind the Earth's waters and its relationship to the Sun. Lead author John J. Tobin from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) discovered how the V883 Orionis protostar details much about water composition in a forming star.
Stars are made from gas and dust clouds collapsing, birthing a big ball of energy at its center.
However, it also forms a disc from the materials of the clouds that manifest around it. The researchers studied the disc formation's composition of water, to which it found significant clues on its chemical signature and its path to form planets.
Tobin and his team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the gas cloud forming around the protostar, 1,300 light years away from the Earth. This is in collaboration with the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Earth's Water May be Older than the Sun, Soon to be Studied
"The composition of the water in the disc is very similar to that of comets in our own Solar System. This is confirmation of the idea that the water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the Sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth, relatively unchanged," said Tobin.
It would soon help explain more about the planet's waters, which the researchers believe are much older than the Sun.
Their research paper was published earlier in Nature's journal.
Distant Systems, Exoplanets Give Information About Earth
There are significant studies around the universe that centers on giving more information about our planet, as despite their complex differences, researchers managed to find similarities that could explain more about the Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is not shy of its many discoveries on exoplanets that it finds to have the same size as the Earth.
The search for a second Earth or other exoplanets which is similar to what we live in now is also something that researchers are looking, for to study and learn more about for their needs. A previous "Ocean Planet" discovered more than 100 light years away is 70 percent larger than our planet, also possessing a massive body of water surrounding it.
While the V883 Orionis has no similarities to the Solar System, scientists managed to find a way to use its process in birthing a star and forming planets to learn more about the Earth, soon to be their next study.
