How the water came to Earth
Every day we are a little closer to deciphering some mysteries of the universe, such as the last great discovery: European scientists have found traces of water similar to our planet on a distant comet. A finding that many astronomers dreamed of, since a few years ago comets began to be considered as an important source of water. A hypothesis that had not been proven until today, because the proportions discovered in space bodies were very different from those on Earth.
In this article by a PROFESSOR we want to contribute to clearing up the eternal doubt about how the water came to earth reporting on this current discovery.
The protagonist of this latest scientific discovery is the celestial body 103P / Hartley 2, and it belongs to the Jupiter family. A determining finding for the scientific community that will help to discover how and when our oceans formed.
As regards the composition of this comet, there is no doubt that it is very different from that of other space bodies. Among other things because it was created in a different region of the Solar System, specifically in the Kuiper Belt, close to Pluto and 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth.
This comet has also revealed that the amount of material in the universe, which has been able to help create the Earth's oceans, may be much greater than was initially thought. According to scientists, the Kuiper Belt lost 97% of its mass about 4 billion years ago causing many comets to be thrown. This phenomenon gave rise to craters that exist on the Moon and at the same time, they brought enough water to Earth.
At the moment, researchers from the European Space Agency continue to investigate how the discovery of traces of water in a comet far from our planet, especially in the mixtures of fluids existing on Earth primitive.
