The thesis that water on Earth came from space has been bolstered by new scientific studies

The thesis that water on Earth came from space has been bolstered by new scientific studies
Winchcombe meteorite photos | Image: Disclosure

Popular scientific publication Sciences Last week I published a study that found a meteorite with 11% water by weight. Scientists’ theories include that the Earth, in its formation, was extremely hot, having expelled what was there, including water. Later, they confirmed that a rain of icy meteorites brought water, which currently covers 70% of the planet through the oceans.

For those who wish to read the study published in Sciencesthis past November 16th, you can do the Download In English by clicking in this link🇧🇷 But if you want to download the full original monograph, also in English and in PDF format, only Click this other link🇧🇷 123 scientists signed the document. It was based on a meteorite that fell at 21:54:16 (UT) on February 28, 2021 in Winkcombe, Gloucestershire, UK.

The location of the wreck was made possible because the “fireball” was recorded by 16 meteorological cameras, as well as numerous videos and more than a thousand eyewitness reports, as well as reports of a sonic boom from the International Meteorological Organization. (IMO) The main mass (319.5 g) of the meteorite was discovered the next day in the town of Wyncombe, Gloucestershire. The stone fell into an inlet, shattering into a heap of fragments leaving a millimeter dark powder, which was collected with the help of rubber gloves and hermetically sealed in polyethylene bags. .

Collected 12 hours after fall. Other stones from the local area were recovered over the following week by the public and during a search organized by members of the Planetary Science Society in the United Kingdom. The largest intact piece of the Winchcombe meteorite is a 152.0 gram melt-covered stone found on farmland on March 6, 2021. In total, 531.5 grams of material was recovered less than 7 days after the fall, when there was haze and dew on the ground. land, but there is no rain in the area.

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The segment contains three distinct rocks (white lines), where the main phases are silicate (red/green), TCIs (green), carbonates (blue) and olivine (bright red) | Image: Disclosure

Confirms association with wet asteroids

According to the study and in the well-documented fallout encounter, the Winchcombe meteorite confirms the association between carbonaceous chondrites and major C-type water asteroids “thought to have originated in the outer solar system.” This makes the Winchcombe meteorite complementary to the asteroid regolith samples returned by the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions, although scientists are aware that the original body it was ejected from may not have passed as close to the Sun as the asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.

Combined secondary electron image and EDS map showing globe-shaped morphology in C and N (orange) within a silicate-rich matrix (in blue) of a fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite | Image: Disclosure

Upon reaching Earth, carbonaceous chondrites are highly susceptible to changes in the terrestrial environment and the extraterrestrial signatures can be modified within days (26). However, with the first materials recovered within hours of the fall, facilitated by collaborative research efforts and the civil science communities, the Winchcombe meteorite is the least modified member of the CM chondrite group recovered to date. Therefore, the Winchcombe meteorite provides a roughly window into the geological history of the early asteroids and the chemical and dynamical evolution of volatiles in the early solar system. Carbonaceous chondrites are a specific type of chondrite. It has a high percentage of carbon (up to 3%), which occurs in the form of graphite, carbonates, and organic compounds, including amino acids and may contain water and minerals altered by water. Carbonaceous chondrites are not exposed to high temperatures, so they don’t seem to change much due to thermal processes.

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