Courtesy of NASASome of the Earth’s water may have been formed with the help of the solar wind, a study has found.
It is said that the solar wind, made up of charged particles with mostly hydrogen cations, brought water to the small dust grains of the asteroid, and the asteroid collided with the Earth early in the formation of the solar system and brought the water.
An international team of researchers led by Dr Luke Daley, a solar system researcher at the University of Glasgow, UK, has published a study in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy that suggests that the solar wind may have contributed to Earth’s water formation.
Compared to other rocky planets in the solar system, the Earth has an overwhelming amount of water, with more than 70% of its surface covered by oceans, but its origin is not clearly known.
There is a strong hypothesis that a carbon-rich C-type asteroid delivered it at the last stage of Earth’s formation, but it does not match the ratio of deuterium (D · deuterium) to hydrogen (H), which can confirm the origin of water (H₂O). It has been hypothesized to have one or more other origins where the /H ratio is low.
According to Curtin University, Australia, where Researcher Daily conducted this research as a doctoral student, the research team conducted the research by element by element by the Japanese asteroid rover Hayabusa collected from the near-Earth S-type asteroid Itokawa and brought to Earth in 2010. meticulously analyzed.
Courtesy of Curtin University
Using Curtin University’s state-of-the-art tomography equipment, we observed the inside of dust grains that are only 50 nm (nanometers) in diameter and found that they contain water and hydroxyl groups (OH). It has been found that the amount that can be formed is
The research team also obtained the result of generating water molecules in the experiment of irradiating hydrogen ions on the surface of silicate minerals.
“Our study shows that the solar wind produces water on the surface of small dust grains, and that this water, with a light D/H ratio, can be transferred to the unexplained rest of the Earth,” said co-author Philip Bland, director of the Curtin University Center for Space Science and Technology (SSTC). It suggests that water may have been provided.”
The research team emphasized that the results of this study not only provide surprising insights into the origin of water on Earth, but could also be helpful for future space exploration activities.
“How astronauts will get enough water without supplies is one of the barriers to future space exploration,” said Daley. “It’s been shown to be large, which means that astronauts can get water directly from the dust on the surface of celestial bodies like the moon.”
