Comets May Be the Source of Earth's Ocean Water
The Earth is believed to have formed hot and dry, meaning that its current water content must have been delivered after the planet cooled. Now, a new class of hybrid Comet/Asteroids orbiting among the rocky asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter may hold clues to the original source of Earth's ocean water.
Comments:
Okay, now where did the water on the comets come from???<br>Art
Same place where Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune and Pluto came from. These worlds are made up largely of lighter materials. The inner solar system worlds consist primarily of metals and silicates. The water and lighter materials that would have been incorporated in a homogenius nebula would have been boiled of and pushed out to the outer regions of the then growing solar system leaving behind the heavier and more dense metals. Basically solar heating differetiated the nebula that formed the planets.<br><br>Clear Skies<br>Dwight L Bogan
Other than the obvious dissolved minerals from the earth's crust, I always thought water was uniquely water. I don't even think it can have an enantiomorph due to its unique 120 degree bond angle. I question what exactly are the detectable differences between pure water; be it asteriod, comet, or earth? More deuterium?
Perhaps different oxygen isotope? But maybe we're overanalyzing. The difference could simply be one of municipal well water versus filtered spring in a bottle.<br><br>What I'D like to know is, when the nebula is still fresh and hot (but not yet boiling) and all mixed with water, organics, mineral dusts, etc., whether densities are high enough in spots for life to form in situ, IN SPACE, around the inner solar system. Nobody mentions this possibility- its always life forms in or on a planet, or comes from deep space hitching a ride.<br><br>My idea is kinda like the one in 'Integral Trees'- just enough stuff to make a workable ecosystem without necessarily having a planet.<br><br>Jess Tauber
