How does water exist on Earth? It is a question that not even the most expert and knowledgeable scientists in the field can answer with certainty. There are theories about the vital liquid for our existence, but no one, at least for now, can ensure the exact origin.
A new research paper tried it and claims to have traced the origin of water in our Solar System. They say that he traveled from a planet-forming disk some 1,300 light-years away and that he even arrived before the Sun we see every morning existed.
The existence of water on Earth is historically explained as being generated thanks to the impact of bodies such as comets and asteroids; both rich in water ice and dust, when they bombarded the planet shortly after its formation, at the time of the early Solar System.
The new research cited by DW portal affirms that with data obtained by the ALMA observatory, located in the Chilean desert zone, they traced the journey of water from a gas cloud in a region of a planetary formation disk, which surrounds the star V883 Orionis.
“We can now trace the origins of water in our Solar System back to before the Sun formed,” explains John J. Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (USA) and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
Water is made up of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. These elements join asteroids and meteorites that form in the gas cloud disks that surround massive stars during their creation.
So, the theory that the water comes from the collision of two stellar rocks is supported. The surprising thing about the research is that they managed to trace the water from before it joined any rocky body.
“In this case, V883 Orionis represents the missing link. The composition of the water in the disk is very similar to that of comets in our own solar system. This is a confirmation of the idea that water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the Sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth with relatively little change. scarce”, explained the author of the study.