Ancient Meteorite Answers the Origin of Earth’s Water
- Trustees of the Natural History Museum
VIVA – A 4.6-billion-year-old space rock landed in front of a family home in the England town of Winchcombe in February 2021. This ancient meteorite may be the answer to where Earth's water comes from or its origins.
It contains water very similar to the chemical composition of water found on Earth, shedding light on the possibility of how our planet was endowed with life-giving substances.
When the rocky planets in the young solar system first merged or clumped together from hot clouds of steaming gas and dust near the Sun, they were too close to our star to form oceans.
After passing a certain point called the ice line, no ice could escape evaporation, making the young Earth barren and inhospitable.
Scientists think this changed after the Earth cooled when a barrage of icy asteroids from outside the Solar System brought frozen water to our planet to later thaw.
Ilustrasi minum air.
- Pexels/Lisa Fotios
As quoted from the Live Science website, Wednesday, November 23, 2022, a new analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite published November 16 in the journal Science Advances has supported this theory.
"One of the biggest questions the scientific community asks is how did we get here?" According to study author, Luke Daly.
Analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite provides insight into how the Earth came to have water. Researchers will continue to work on this specimen for many years to come. Unlocking more secrets about the origin of the Solar System.
The space rock, a rare carbon-rich type called a carbon chondrite, was collected just hours after it was smashed into the ground and remains largely uncontaminated.
"This makes it one of the purest meteorites available for analysis. It also offers tantalizing insights into the original composition of the solar system," The lead author and a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, Ashley King said.
To analyze the minerals and elements inside the rock, the researchers polished, heated, and bombarded it with X-rays and lasers, revealing that it came from an asteroid orbiting around Jupiter and that 11 percent of the meteorite's mass is water.
Ilustrasi air putih.
- Pixabay
Hydrogen in asteroid water comes in two forms - normal hydrogen and an isotope of hydrogen known as deuterium, which makes up heavy water.
Scientists found that the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium matches the ratio found in water on Earth, strongly implying that meteorite water and our planet's water have a common point of origin. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and subsequent life, were also found in the rock.
To extend this research, scientists could analyze other space rocks floating around the Solar System, such as the asteroid Ryugu, which was also found to contain the building blocks of life.
A comprehensive survey of the Solar System's space rocks could give scientists a better insight into which rocks helped seed the early Earth, and where they came from.
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