If the question of the origin of life on Earth still remains largely uncertain, it is believed that it must not be unrelated to the presence of water. In addition to all the hypotheses formulated, French researchers suggested another avenue which was recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. And this is new.
Extraterrestrial water?
As Futura Science points out, there are two main types of hypotheses regarding the origin of water on Earth. On the one hand, we find the so-called terrestrial theses, namely scenarios in which our planet had a quantity of water from its formation. On the other, so-called extraterrestrial tracks, according to which water is subsequently brought to Earth. For example by comets and asteroids rich in water, as the dominant theory wants.
The fact remains that “this scenario requires a cosmic “game of billiards”, where complex dynamic mechanisms send these icy objects towards the Earth, at a precise moment and in sufficient quantity”, underlined the researchers of the team in a CNRS press release. from LESIA (Laboratory for Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics) of the Paris Observatory – PSL, who carried out the new study. A perspective considered too random, and questioned about its robustness and universality across all systems.
Intergalactic sauna
Instead, scientists proposed a new scenario, “a little more natural and a little simpler to set up”, in the words of astronomer Quentin Kral, lead author of the study, cited by TF1 Info. Based on the observation of asteroids, they suggested that in the first 100 million years of the Solar System, the Sun would have sublimated, after a period of protection, the ices of the celestial bodies which were numerous in the epoch in the asteroid belt, thereby creating a gigantic disk of water vapor.
It would then have spread throughout the Solar System, until being captured by the Earth, thus forming the oceans by cooling. This theory is supported by the fact that we have seen, thanks to the ALMA radio telescope for example, “discs of carbon and oxygen gas” in the asteroid belts of systems other than ours for around ten years. ‘years. From now on, LESIA wishes to deepen its scenario by studying even younger systems using ALMA, which potentially still have their water vapor disk.
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