Once H2O is an element vital to life on our planet Earth and not only, scientists have long been trying to understand how water could be on our planet. One theory suggests that water was created in a chemical reaction after the birth of the Sun. If this was actually the case, then water should only be available near certain stars created in a certain way. A new study published in Science shows the probability of most of the water that today is on our planet much older than the Sun and comes from interstellar dust.
This is an interesting fact that you can ponder about the next time you bring a glass of water to your lips. This discovery is important because it shows the water was distributed throughout the universe, regardless of the classification and way of formation of the stars. "If the water in its natural state at the earliest stage of our solar system has been inherited from ice in interstellar dust, this means that similar ice in other systems is likely to contain organic substances, and these ice meet quite often throughout the universe," - shares Author of the study Connel Alezander.
Scientists as a result of research concluded that the bulk of the water on Earth came from interstellar space, based on a thorough study of hydrogen and deuterium on our planet. Deuterium is a heavier hydrogen brother - having one more neutron in the atomic structure and is formed under special conditions. In interstellar dust, for example, has a greater percentage of deuterium due to extremely low temperatures and high radiation levels.
Until now, the researchers did not have enough confidence that deuterium on Earth came from interstellar space or it is the product of our Sun. To understand, scientists created a mathematical model of the early solar system and a protoplanetary disk around a young star. The researchers found that due to the temperature and radiation values, it was not possible for the young solar system to get the level of hydrogen and deuterium that we find today in terrestrial water. Based on this model, scientists suggest that between 7 and 50% of the water on Earth came from interstellar dust.
Basically, the conclusion from this discovery is that the organic life that originated on Earth probably occurs in many places in the universe.