Hi, I greet you. I would like to continue the topic: of the importance of the comet in the universe? Does the water on Earth come from comets? According to the researchers, the water is a key component for the development and maintenance of life. Following this line of reasoning can be concluded that life … can be everywhere.
According to the latest information, most likely not the earthly water was brought from space by the comet. The European Space Agency – reported the results of analyzes carried out by the probe Rosina, who provided information about water being a part of the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The analysis of these results that the chemical composition of the water contained in the comet is different from the water commonly encountered on Earth. A team of researchers, led by John Bradley of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studied the dust found in the Earth’s stratosphere, the diameter of which is from 5 to 25 micrometers. The discovery of water was a big surprise for them. Since stardust containing water is everywhere, so it means that life is a common phenomenon in the universe.
Scientists have discovered is that the stellar dust flying through our solar system contains water. Stardust mostly made up of silicates, which contain oxygen. Traveling through space goes to a solar wind, bringing with them high-energy hydrogen ions. During the collision, the hydrogen combines with oxygen contained in the dust to form a water molecule.
Scientists believe that water could be brought to Earth through the dust, but it is difficult to determine how it can take the form of oceans. It is more likely that the formation of such large amounts of water on the planet was made possible by the fall of the „wet asteroids” or comets.
Question – Where does the water on Earth? – From asteroids, comets, or in any other way, is the subject of ongoing scientific debate. Analysis of the chemical composition of water in the comet 67P was one of the main objectives of the Rosetta mission. Rosina probe board equipment, which was delivered to the lander Philae, analyzed the particles floating around the comet in August, when the probe reached the vicinity of the comet.
Researchers at the University of Bern, analyzed data submitted by the probe for the content of deuterium. The results were surprising, water comet 67P has three times more hydrogen isotope heavier than water on Earth (Science, DOI: 10.1126 science.1261952). The research carried out so far showed that the amount of deuterium in the water on the other comets was similar to that of the Earth’s water, which clearly suggested its origin. However, the different composition of the comet 67P water greatly complicates previous assumptions.
Scientists confirm that somewhere out there in the cosmos are objects that contain water with a similar signature as Earth, but are you sure these objects provided the water on our planet? Traffic simulations asteroids and comets within the solar system show that the trajectories of asteroids likely to intersect with the orbit of the Earth, but there is no confirmed evidence that they have brought us water from space and filled the Earth’s oceans.
Information collected by the probe, so far are not the final data. It is likely that water with a different deuterium contained in the deeper layers of the comet will be released when it approaches the sun and warm up so that the water has started to evaporate. Furthermore, the shape of a comet points to the fact that it may consist of two or more elements which are „fused” together in the collision. Each of these parts, however, could have originated in another region of the solar system, and differ in their chemical composition.
Whether such data will be collected? It is not known. Especially when the lander as a result of accidental landing site had lost the ability to correct exposure solar light of our star. Philae mean lost the ability to analyze the chemical composition of the comet.
Rosetta mission was to give an answer to the question where it comes from water on Earth, and whether comets are carriers of heavier molecules, such as amino acids. So far, two questions remain unanswered. Perhaps when the comet approaches the Sun, some of them will get the answer.
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