New evidence of water brought to Earth by meteorites

Many scientists believe that the water on Earth comes from meteorites. However, this theory has been difficult to prove, as the meteorites recovered so far do not contain water.

Moreover, chemical reactions occurred that may have included the water carried by the comets millions of years ago.

For this reason, and in the face of this difficulty, a group of international scientists tried a new approach: studying isotopes of meteorites that fell to Earth in the last century.

How did she know?

The researchers studied the distributions of uranium and thorium in the samples. The former is soluble in water, while the latter is insoluble.

Logical reasoning suggests that if water was present in the meteorite, it would have to move as it melted, and this motion would be reflected in the isotope distribution of thorium and uranium.

By analyzing nine of the meteorites, scientists found what they were looking for. The discovery indicated that water was moving in the wake of the melting, possibly over the past million years.

From the results of the report published in the magazine ScienceThe researchers suggest that the meteorites may have provided water not only during Earth’s formation years, but may have provided water in a more recent period as well.

According to them, this can be verified by taking samples of asteroids before they collide with our planet, as have recent space missions by Japan and the United States.

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