Earth may have been wet ever since its formation, claims new study

A new study has suggested that the earth`s water may have come from materials that were present in the inner solar system when the planet was formed. The findings of this study are published in the journal Science. It is to be noted that it is widely believed that building blocks of planet earth are presumed to be dry.

"Our discovery shows that the Earth`s building blocks might have significantly contributed to the Earth`s water," said lead author Laurette Piani, a researcher at the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG, CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France.

According to researchers, a meteorite called an enstatite chondrite has enough hydrogen to deliver at least three times the amount of water contained in oceans. Enstatite chondrites are made up of material from the inner solar system.

"Hydrogen-bearing material was present in the inner solar system at the time of the rocky planet formation, even though the temperatures were too high for water to condense," Piani said.

"The most interesting part of the discovery for me is that enstatite chondrites, which were believed to be almost `dry,` contain an unexpectedly high abundance of water," said Lionel Vacher, a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

Vacher said that he had managed to prepare some enstatite chondrites for water analysis while he was completing his PhD at Universite de Lorraine. Interestingly, the amount of oxygen, titanium and calcium isotopes in enstatite chondrites is same as Earth.

"If enstatite chondrites were effectively the building blocks of our planet -- as strongly suggested by their similar isotopic compositions -- this result implies that these types of chondrites supplied enough water to Earth to explain the origin of Earth`s water, which is amazing," Vacher said.