Detecting Earth-like water on comets

Comet Water Hartley 2 is the most similar to the ocean on Earth compared to the human comets once knew.

>>>The meteorite is about to bring gold to the earth

Using the Herschel space telescope, the University of Michigan scientists studied the rate of deuterium , a rare form of hydrogen, inside water on comets. Just like our ocean, water in Hartley 2 only has a deuterium level of half that of other comets.

According to BBC , the results of this study suggest that most of the water on Earth may be due to comets. Several million years after formation, the Earth was originally dry and full of stones. However, "certain factors" brought water to and covered most of the planet's surface as it is today.

Previously, scientists had explored a lot of comets but the rate of deuterium was twice that of the oceans. In contrast, small planets - the source of meteorites and meteorites that fall to Earth have a very similar rate of deuterium. So they think that if water comes from the universe, it must be brought by meteorites.

All explored comets are formed from the early period of the solar system, in the region of two major planets, Neptune and Uranus. When colliding with each other or with these two planets, they will be shot far away.

Comet Hartley 2 is an object of the first Kuiper Belt to be analyzed for the deuterium ratio. (Objects of this belt form not too far from the solar system and comets from here often have much shorter orbit than the Oort Cloud belt object.

Dr. Red Bergin believes that if not the main water source, comets will at least participate in bringing water to the earth."If all comets with short orbits like Hartley 2 produce similar results, then this is an important source of water in the early Earth."

However, many opinions remain skeptical about the University of Michigan's discovery."In the past, it was assumed that meteorites and comets were two completely different objects. But now, with many new studies, people believed that they were brothers. Tien's research. Dr. Bergin revealed a new perspective to the question: Where is the origin of water on Earth? " . However, a new question will arise: "From which part of the universe and by what mechanism would these objects bring water to Earth?".

Researchers believe that, with the Atacama telescope in Chile in operation, people will soon be able to solve these secrets with unprecedented accuracy.