Despite playing a critical part in the emergence of life, the origins of water, which covers three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, has eluded scientists since the beginning of history.
A 4.6billion-year-old rock that “crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system.”
According to Dr Ashley King, a research fellow at the Natural History Museum in London, the Winchcombe meteorite, which is one of the most pristine available for analysis, offered scientists “a tantalising glimpse back through time to the original composition of the solar system 4.6bn years-ago.”
There is a widely accepted theory that the Earth was barren when it formed since the inner region of the solar system was too hot for water to condense. “The boundary of the region where ice could form in the early solar system is known as the frost line, and is located in the modern asteroid belt,” Hannah Devlin captures.
However, As Devlin underscores, there are competing theories, including that water was brought on comets – made mostly of ice and dust – or other similar bodies.
This latest discovery supports the theory that asteroids made a highest contribution to water on Earth. Most of the Winchcombe meteorite, Devlin writes, was recovered just hours after its spectacular fireball lit up the skies over the UK in February 2021 during lockdown.