Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 09/10/2011 12:16:06
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A comet not far from Earth has shed some light on how our planet could have come by much of its water, a new study has revealed.
Read the whole story on our website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news-archive/news/2403/)
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I do appreciate the 'new' scientific information concerning how potentially the earth has received its vast resource of oceans and fresh water for that matter in which covers 3/4's of the earth. I find it humorous in a way mainly because of the size of the comet or asteroid involved in bringing our water supply to us. The question still remains, where did that comet or asteroid gain the water from in order to ingratiate our good earth? Here is a fact: The universe is comprised of Hydrogen and oxygen and, so many other elements that comprise earth and all of our other planets throughout our universe. It all depends on how far they are away from a sun. Good luck with your idea though. It might have some possibilities if the asteroid somehow compacted all of the water it had and somehow opened up like a compacted zip file or something. Sorry. I could not resist. Am I wrong? Maybe I didn't get what you were saying. Could be. I am always open for argument. I love to equate based on what I read and see.. Help me out if I am missing something. Thanks..
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Help me out if I am missing something.
I think the only thing you are missing is an understanding of the research.
You seem to be aware that during formation of the terrestrial planets volatiles were relatively depleted, so although water is a commonplace compound in the universe it was deficient in the formation of the Earth. (You noted: The universe is comprised of Hydrogen and oxygen and, so many other elements that comprise earth and all of our other planets throughout our universe. It all depends on how far they are away from a sun.) This depletion seems to rule out the notion that the oceanic water was produced largely by degassing of the Earth's interior.
The alternative explanation was that the water had been acquired through impact by many bolides (comets or asteroids) from the formation of the Earth through the Late Heavy Bombardment period. Please note that a single comet or asteroid is not seen as the source of the water, but rather very many such bodies. (A really big number. Work it out - simple arithmetic.)
You ask where the comet or asteroid would have acquired this water. They would have formed sufficiently distant from the proto sun that water could condense, along with dusty material, and accrete into small bodies, either asteroids (with hydrous minerals) or comets (which are still reasonably called 'dirty snowballs').
Arguments as to whether the bulk of the water came from asteroids or comets have swayed back and forth. This latest research points in the direction of comets.
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You seem to be aware that during formation of the terrestrial planets volatiles were relatively depleted, so although water is a commonplace compound in the universe it was deficient in the formation of the Earth. (You noted: The universe is comprised of Hydrogen and oxygen and, so many other elements that comprise earth and all of our other planets throughout our universe. It all depends on how far they are away from a sun.) This depletion seems to rule out the notion that the oceanic water was produced largely by degassing of the Earth's interior..
I appreciate your comment(s) in its entirety. I would like to further elaborate on why I made some of the comments I did. The entire universe contains essentially all of the same elements or molecular structure(s) throughout. These can vary by either gravitational force or even perhaps vary because of the distance from a (the) sun. For instance, the terrestrial planets are different from the Jovian Planets in that they vary in degree because of distance and gravity. One will find that generally the 'larger' planet(s) will be farther away from the sun because the distance generally will not allow the planet to warm up or burn off certain elements (depending how far away the planet is away from the sun of course) the mass tends to in time grow due to gravitational forces creating more mass overall (without the threat of 'burning off' as other planets do that are closer to the sun. Earth is in an amazing position that allows life mainly because of size of the sun in comparison to the distance to our planet. They are in 'Harmony'. As far as water goes, yes, you are right about the icy comets beyond our solar system that do make they way towards us, but at the same time I believe our water supply overall has to do with the Earth's complementary position to the sun and the Earth's orbit around the sun in which is a unique combination that allows life to exist as it would anywhere else in our universe given the same circumstances. :) Thank you for your input!
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Seven hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, a young, sunlike star has been found with jets that blast epic quantities of water into interstellar space, shooting out droplets that move faster than a speeding bullet.
The discovery suggests that protostars may be seeding the universe with water. These stellar embryos shoot jets of material from their north and south poles as their growth is fed by infalling dust that circles the bodies in vast disks.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110613-space-science-star-water-bullets-kristensen/
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New Big Bang theory from Terridactyl split off to New Theories
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=42202.msg373613#msg373613
Thanks
imatfaal - moderator