In a study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal GeoScienceWorld Elements, two researchers from China and Italy used a series of complex calculations to reveal in detail the periods in which the planet’s water was formed.
According to the study, there are two sources of water on Earth. The first originated when the Solar System was a cold cloud. The second occurred when the planets formed (4 billion 543 million years ago).
Water is crucial for the emergence and evolution of life on Earth. Recent studies of the water content in early forming planetary systems similar to our own show that water is an abundant and ubiquitous molecule, initially synthesized on the surfaces of tiny interstellar dust grains by the hydrogenation of frozen oxygen. Water then enters a cycle of sublimation/freezing throughout the successive phases of planetary system formation, namely, hot corinos and protoplanetary disks, eventually to be incorporated into planets, asteroids, and comets. The amount of heavy water measured on Earth and in early forming planetary systems suggests that a substantial fraction of terrestrial water was inherited from the very first phases of the Solar System formation and is 4.5 billion years old. geoscienceworld.
