The object that once glided through Earth’s sky may represent the “life vessels” from billions of years ago.
Earth formed in the “Goldilocks zone” of the solar system, where temperatures are just right for liquid water to exist. However, how water arrived on Earth remains a mystery.
A “stranger” named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, first discovered in the sky over half a century ago, may hold the key.
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with ESA’s Philae lander on its surface, is a spacecraft of Rosetta, revealing a special connection between this comet and Earth – (Graphic: ESA).
A recent study published in the journal Science Advances indicates that 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a Jupiter-family comet, possesses water with molecular characteristics similar to that of water on Earth.
Jupiter-family comets are those with short orbits; instead of traveling in large loops from the Oort Cloud to the region near the Sun—also close to Earth—they are held on a narrow orbit by Jupiter.
This narrow orbit allows them to return to us more frequently, providing excellent research opportunities.
According to Sci-News, to determine the origin of water on celestial bodies, scientists often examine the ratio of deuterium (D) to ordinary hydrogen (H) in water.
In 2014, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was removed from the list of potential “water vessels” when the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission showed its D-H ratio was three times that of Earth’s oceans.
However, this time, a research team led by Dr. Kathleen Mandt from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center indicated that comet dust had skewed those initial calculations.
They employed advanced statistical computation techniques to automate the process of isolating deuterium-rich water from over 16,000 measurements from Rosetta.
By eliminating the confounding factor of deuterium-rich comet dust, the scientists showed that the water actually from the comet’s nucleus has much less deuterium and a D-H ratio similar to that of Earth.
Therefore, they believe that this comet and other Jupiter-family comets represent the vessels that contributed to building the life-filled world we inhabit today.
According to increasingly accepted theories supported by substantial evidence, early Earth lacked the necessary components for life to arise.
However, over time, many comets, asteroids, and other small meteoritic forms played the role of “life vessels,” delivering essential components to create today’s ecosystems.
These components include water, prebiotic molecules, and other chemical elements that facilitated the reactions leading to the emergence of the first life forms.
