That meteorites may have brought water to Earth early in its history is not a particularly controversial claim, but this new research suggests that instead of halting billions of years ago the process may be ongoing.
The researchers studied carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, leftover building blocks of the Solar System, and found that they within the last million years they had liquid flowing across them. Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are from ancient parent bodies orbiting in the outer Solar System beyond the orbit of Jupiter, which have been largely undisturbed since its formation.... [+]
Solar System as asteroids. This meteorite comes from a meteorite fall impacting the Earth at Atacama DesertThe scientists—led by Simon Turner at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia—examined carbonaceous chondrite meteorites collected from around the world. To find signs of recent liquid flow they searched for uranium and thorium isotopes. Why? Since uranium is water-soluble, it can be transported by liquids, but it radioactively decays into thorium, which is immobile. Their signature should disappear within a million years, due to radioactive decay, but that wasn’t the case on some of the meteorites.
The panspermia hypothesis is becoming more and more logical.
SO WHY ARE WE PAYING THE WATER BOARD!!!! 😡 . Meteorites may have delivered water to Earth from the outer Solar System throughout its 4.5 billion years history—and may still be doing so
Watering the planets.
nice
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