Did water evolve from planets?

Chennai: That life emerged in water is common knowledge. But where did water evolve from?

This question that has puzzled scientists for long, now seems to have an explanation.

According to a study by the University of Copenhagen, ‘There are two hypotheses about the emergence of water. One is that it arrives on planets by accident, when asteroids containing water collide with the planet in question’, says Professor Martin Bizzarro from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

‘The other hypothesis is that water emerges in connection with the formation of the planet. Our study suggests that this hypothesis is correct, and if that is true, it is extremely exciting, because it means that the presence of water is a bioproduct of the planet formation process’, he adds.

Bizzarro and Assistant Professor Zhengbin Deng have joined together to propose this new theory.

If this theory proves correct, life in planetary systems may have had better chances of developing than previously assumed.

The study shows that there was water on Mars for the first 90 million years of the planet’s existence.

It suggests that water emerged with the formation of Mars. And it tells us that water may be naturally occurring on planets and does not require an external source like water-rich asteroids.

The study is based on analyses of an otherwise modest black meteorite. But the meteorite is 4.45 billion years old and contains invaluable knowledge about the young solar system.  Black Beauty, which is the name of the meteorite, originates from the original Martian crust and offers unique insight into events at the time of the formation of the solar system.

With the meteorite in the laboratory they are now able to present signs of the presence of liquid water on Mars at the time of its formation. First, however, they had to crush, dissolve and analyse 15 grams of the expensive rock, Zhengbin Deng explains:

‘We have developed a new technique that tells us that Mars in its infancy suffered one or more severe asteroid impacts. The impact, Black Beauty reveals, created kinetic energy that released a lot of oxygen. And the only mechanism that could likely have caused the release of such large amounts of oxygen is the presence of water’, he says.