Theory That Earth's Water Came From Melted Meteorites Debunked!

Researchers now believe that the water on Earth did not originate from melted meteorites, despite earlier claims to the contrary.

Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, yet the origin and time frame of this water's presence are still mysteries. But some researchers claim that their latest work gets them one step closer to resolving this conundrum.

Understanding Water's Origin

According to Evening Standard, these researchers examined molten meteorites that had been in orbit since the solar system formed almost 4.5 billion years ago.

Scientists led by Megan Newcombe, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Maryland, concluded that these meteorites have a very low water content, making them among the driest extraterrestrial materials yet studied.

Newcombe remarked, "Getting water and having surface oceans on a planet that is small and relatively near the sun is a challenge."

Signs of Extraterrestrial Life

Findings might have significant ramifications for the hunt for water and life on other planets, according to the researchers. They believe they can now rule out meteorites as the major source of Earth's water.

Newcombe explained, "Water is considered to be an ingredient for life to be able to flourish, so as we're looking out into the universe and finding all of these exoplanets, we're starting to work out which of those planetary systems could be potential hosts for life. In order to be able to understand these other solar systems, we want to understand our own."

The research team examined seven achondrite meteorites that fell to Earth billions of years after breaking off from at least five planetesimals, the objects that collided to create the planets in our solar system.

As these meteorites very recently crashed to Earth, this experiment marked the first time their attributes had been examined in this manner.

Samples of meteorites were found originated from the inner solar system, where Earth is thought to have first formed and where temperatures and humidity levels were likely to have been suitable for life. Rarer samples were gathered from the icy, far limits of our solar system.

'Not From Meteorites'

Objects from the outer solar system were assumed to have brought water to Earth, but it has not yet been identified what kinds of objects may have done so.

"We knew that plenty of outer solar system objects were differentiated, but it was sort of implicitly assumed that because they were from the outer solar system, they must also contain a lot of water," said Sune Nielsen, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute geologist and research co-author.

"Our paper shows this is definitely not the case. As soon as meteorites melt, there is no remaining water," he added.

Scientists found that water made up less than two parts per million of the mass of the achondrite samples they analyzed.

As compared to the meteorites investigated in the Nature study, these carbonaceous chondrites are known as the wettest meteorites and contain up to 20% water by weight.