By Chelsea Gohd | November 9, 2018 4:53 pm
Forming an Ocean
When you look out at the ocean, its difficult to imagine the swaying body of water being any other way. But, says a team of researchers, some of the H2O that covers much of our planets surface was once something very different: A stream of hydrogen traveling through the galaxy. Only on Earth did this hydrogen mix with oxygen to create the watery world we know today.
There are a number of theories surrounding the formation of Earths global ocean. Comets, which hold a lot of ice, could have supplied some of our planets water; asteroids, though they hold less water, could have added to Earths supply as well. But theres another way to think about sources of water in the solar systems formative days, Steven Desch, a scientist on this team and professor of astrophysics in Arizona State Universitys (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE), said in a statement. Because water is hydrogen plus oxygen, and oxygen is abundant, any source of hydrogen could have served as the origin of Earths water, Desch said.
Cosmic Dust and Gas
Hydrogen gas was one of the main ingredients in the solar nebula, or the gases and dust that formed the sun and planets in our solar system.
When the planets were forming, hydrogen from the solar nebula was incorporated into their interiors. While most remains locked below, some of it could have combined with oxygen from other materials on Earth and gone on to create our planets global ocean, Desch and his team found.
More:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/11/09/asteroids-and-cosmic-dust-and-gas-formed-earths-global-ocean/#.W-ZwXpNKjIU