MOON BROUGHT WATER TO EARTH

 

For: Mains
Topic covers: How did water come to earth and related findings

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News Flash

Scientists have found that a cosmic body that hit the Earth and led to the formation of the Moon about 4.4 billion years ago may have also delivered large quantities of water to our home planet, making it habitable.

The Earth is the only terrestrial planet with a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilises the Earth’s axis. Both were essential for Earth to develop life.

 

Aim

To associate the origin of water on Earth with the formation of the Moon.

 

New Findings	Earlier Findings
The Moon was formed when Earth was hit by a body about the size of Mars, also called Theia. The study showed that Theia comes from the outer solar system, and it delivered large quantities of water to Earth.	Until now, scientists had assumed that Theia originated in the inner solar system near the Earth.
The Earth formed in the ‘dry’ inner solar system, and so it is somewhat surprising that there is water on Earth.	The solar system became structured such that the ‘dry’ materials were separated from the ‘wet’ materials.
The ‘carbonaceous’ meteorites, which are relatively rich in water, come from the outer solar system, whereas the drier ‘non-carbonaceous’ meteorites come from the inner solar system.	Carbonaceous materials were likely responsible for delivering the water to Earth, it was unknown when and how this carbonaceous material — and thus the water — came to Earth.
Without the Moon there probably would be no life on Earth.

 

How Moon brought water to Earth?

• The molybdenum isotopes allow scientists to clearly distinguish carbonaceous and non-carbonaceous material, and as such represent a ‘genetic fingerprint’ of material from the outer and inner solar system.
• The measurements show that the molybdenum isotopic composition of the Earth lies between those of the carbonaceous and non-carbonaceous meteorites, demonstrating that some of Earth’s molybdenum originated in the outer solar system.
• The chemical properties of molybdenum play a key role because, as it is an iron-loving element, most of the Earth’s molybdenum is located in the core.
• The molybdenum which is accessible today in the Earth’s mantle, therefore, originates from the late stages of Earth’s formation, while the molybdenum from earlier phases is entirely in the core
• The results show, for the first time, that carbonaceous material from the outer solar system arrived on Earth late.
• Researchers found that most of the molybdenum in Earth’s mantle was supplied by the protoplanet Theia, whose collision with Earth 4.4 billion years ago led to the formation of the Moon.
• However, since a large part of the molybdenum in Earth’s mantle originates from the outer solar system, this means that Theia itself also originated from the outer solar system.
• According to the scientists, the collision provided sufficient carbonaceous material to account for the entire amount of water on Earth.

 

Source: Economic Times

 

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