Jakarta –
About 71% of the Earth’s surface is water. So it’s no wonder our Earth is known as the ‘Blue Planet’. We also see water throughout the Solar System, under the icy crusts of moons like Enceladus and Europa, or in the geology of Mars which hints that the Red Planet was once a wetter place and may have been more hospitable to life than it is today.
Humans are mostly composed of water. We need regular water intake so that the body can carry out its functions to keep us alive. We may have originally come from water, before evolving into the land mammals that dominated Earth.
Without water, we cannot live. Have you ever thought about where the water on Earth comes from? How did water originate in the universe, within our Solar System, and how did water find its way to our planet?
This is a tricky question to answer. But as quoted by BBC Sky Night Magazine, planetary science has provided answers about where water actually comes from.
How water is formed
Water molecules form in interstellar space through chemical reactions between hydrogen molecules and oxygen-carrying molecules such as carbon monoxide. The Solar System inherited its water from the icy interstellar grains in the dust cloud where the Sun and planets formed 4.6 billion years ago.
In the Solar System, this water is locked in two main forms. Far from the sun where the temperature is low, water forms icy bodies like comets. While closer to the Sun, water reacts with rocky material to form hydrated minerals.
It is thought that most likely planet Earth inherited its water from the asteroids and comets that hit it. Much of this water was initially added to Earth’s growing mantle as it formed and was released from the interior by subsequent volcanic activity.
Hayabusa Mission
In 2019, the Hayabusa mission strengthened the theory that water on Earth came from asteroids. The mission, which was carried out by the Japanese space agency JAXA, revealed that asteroids played a major role in the study, whose report was published in Science Advances.
The Hayabusa spacecraft succeeded in bringing particles from the surface of an asteroid named 25143 Itokawa in 2010. From there, the researchers managed to analyze the presence of water contained in two of these grains by shooting ions at the samples brought by Hayabusa to find out the composition of the asteroid’s surface.
The grains are smaller than 40 microns, or less than 0.04 millimeters. In addition, each grain is made of several different minerals. Therefore, the ions fired by researchers must focus on certain minerals. In this study, they focused on analyzing iron and pyroxene.
The structure of pyroxene crystals has no spaces to allow water to enter, or in other words the opposite of clay. The properties of pyroxins are exploited by researchers using highly sensitive techniques to detect and measure very small quantities of water.
As a result, the granules contain up to 1,000 parts per million (ppm) of water, or a concentration of only 0.001. From there, the researchers were able to estimate the water contained in asteroid 25143 Itokawa as a whole, with an amount between 160 and 510 ppm.
Furthermore, this study also shows that the isotopic composition of the hydrogen in the water at 25143 Itokawa is very close to Earth’s. This indicates that the source of water on Earth is the same as the grains brought by Hayabusa.
Watch Video “The Reckless Action of an Indian Woman Going Down to the Bottom of a Well for Water“
(rns/rns)
2023-06-01 03:04:56
#water #Earth
