According to a new research published this week, scientists have claimed that comets could be responsible for the presence of water on Earth. science advancementResearchers focused on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and found that the molecular structure of water found on the celestial body is very similar to that of Earth’s oceans. While water existed as gas and dust when Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, the question of how it eventually became rich in liquid water has been puzzling scientists.
Researchers believe that a large portion of our oceans came from ice and minerals on asteroids and possibly comets that collided with Earth. To further their theory, researchers led by planetary scientist Kathleen Mandt of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center used the data and an advanced statistical calculation technique to infer the molecular composition of water on 67P, which belongs to the Jupiter family of comets. Decided to use. The asteroid was captured by the Rosetta mission of the European Space Agency (ESA).
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distinctive signatures of earth
Water on Earth has a unique molecular signature that corresponds to the specific cation of the hydrogen variant, or isotope, called deuterium. Over the past few decades, deuterium levels in water found in the vapor trails of many Jupiter-family comets have shown levels similar to those in Earth’s water.
“So I was just curious whether we could find evidence of this happening on 67P. And this is one of those very rare cases where you propose a hypothesis and actually find it happening,” Ms. Mandate said.
As it turned out, Ms. Mandt’s team found a clear connection between deuterium measurements in the comet and the amount of dust around the Rosetta spacecraft.
“As a comet moves closer to the Sun in its orbit, its surface heats up, causing gas to escape from the surface, including water ice mixed with dust. Water containing deuterium is more likely to be mixed with dust than regular water. Sticks to particles more easily.” “The study sheds light.
It says, “When the ice deposited on these dust particles is released into the coma, the impact may result in a greater amount of deuterium than is visible in the comet.”
This research has major significance not only for understanding the role of comets in delivering water to Earth but also for understanding comet observations that provide insight into the formation of the early Solar System.
