Astronomy Magazine

Comet Ice May Have Fed Earth's Oceans

Posted on the 13 October 2011 by Gerard @presurfer
Comet Ice May Have Fed Earth's Oceansimage credit
Some of the water that covers much of the Earth may have been carried here by comets from beyond Neptune. The water in a comet called 103P/Hartley 2 is chemically very similar to water on Earth, suggesting that some of Earth's water comes from the same comet family, reports an international study led by Paul Hartogh at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung and published last week in Nature.
103P/Hartley 2 is believed to come from the Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Neptune. Scientists think asteroids and comets may have subsequently crashed into the Earth, transporting water in the process.The Presurfer

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