THE ORIGIN OF WATER ON EARTH

For years, scientists are not sure whether water is present when our planet is formed or formed by comets and asteroids that hit the earth. Now, researchers from the University of Hawaii believe they have discovered the origin of the water.

By analyzing the rocks of Baffin Island in Canada, the researchers were able to produce the most convincing evidence supporting the hypothesis of the origin of water. The studied rocks actually originate directly from Earth's mantle and are affected by substances from the Earth's crust. In it, the researchers found tiny droplets of water trapped in glass crystals. The water has the same composition of water that now exists on our planet.

Water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen is often found in three forms called isotopes: normal hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium. The water formed by oxygen and deuterium is called heavy water.

By studying the composition of different objects in the solar system, the researchers found that they tend to have very different ratios between ordinary water and heavy water. Comets show significantly higher ratios of heavy water than normal water.

Researchers do not necessarily ignore the comet and asteroid theory in the presence of water on Earth.

"We can not rule out adding water to the surface of the Earth after its formation (ie via comets and asteroids), but our data shows that the Earth has water since its inception," said Dr. Lydia Hallis, lead author of the study, told IFLScience.

"We can say that water from a deep mantle is unlikely to have been increased by comet impact, because the impact of comets and asteroids will not be strong enough to affect the mantle as deep as thousands of kilometers below the surface.An previous geochemical data also shows that the rock source areas we use For peneiltian has not been disturbed for about 4.5 billion years."

The study, published in the scientific journal Science, provides an important clue to the widespread presence of water on our planet.