Water is at the heart of a lasting question about how life was formed on Earth. More specifically, where did the initial water molecules form and how did they form? Researchers at the University of Lorraine in France in 2020 Published evidence It is found in the met stone known as Sahara 97096, which supports an increasingly popular theory. The original water content of Earth was hidden in the met stone that collided with the planet billions of years ago. But the Oxford University team is now refuting that claim, saying Proto-earth had all the hydrogen needed to start his life. Their conclusions were published in the journal on April 16th Icarusand comes after analyzing similar metstones recovered from Antarctica.
The key to their rebuttal lies in a rare type of space rock called the Enstatite Comondrite. The composition of metstones is particularly important for planetary scientists. Because the planet is 4.555 billion years old, so it is comparable to the planet. Sahara 97096 is an enstatite commontite, but there are few other specimens known to exist on Earth. The specimen, called LAR 12252, provides another example. The Oxford University team recently won a Space Lock for a field trip to the Diamond Light Source Synchrotron in Harwell, Oxfordshire.
So they performed X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy using a particle accelerator facility. Xanes works by directing X-rays to samples from which atoms absorb energy. In doing so, certain chemicals are formed according to the elemental makeup of the object, and atoms bond in a unique way.
In this case, researchers were looking for compounds containing sulfur. Previous analysis of Sahara 97096 revealed traces of hydrogen in organic materials and amorphous sections of meteroite. However, it was not clear at the time whether the remnant hydrogen remaining in Sahara 97096 was native to the rocks or from external pollution on Earth.
Scientists at Oxford University theorized that using XANES spectroscopy could indicate hydrogen attached to large amounts of sulfur. The team first focused on a non-crystalline part of metstone where hydrogen was previously discovered in Sahara 97096. However, during the experiment, adjacent sub-micrometer materials were incorrectly analyzed. However, it was a nearby section that contained hydrogen sulfide, which contains five times more hydrogen than amorphous parts. Conversely, sections of LAR 12252 with obvious signs of contamination, such as cracks and rust, showed little or no hydrogen. For this reason, the team believes that the possibility of hydrogen sulfide from LAR 12252 on Earth is very unlikely.
This may sound like that at first support The theory that metstones carried the hydrogen needed for water to the Earth is opposed by the study authors.
Remember that Enstatite Comondrite is essentially the same as the geological composition of Proto-earth? Analysis of the native amounts of sulfides in LAR 12252 could mean that our planet had all the hydrogen needed to form the first water molecule that was allowed to eventually begin life.
“We were very excited when the analysis showed us that the samples contained hydrogen sulfide. said in a statement. “Because this hydrogen sulfide, which comes from terrestrial pollution, is very unlikely, this study provides important evidence in support of the theory that water on Earth is native.
According to research co-author James Bryson, the results insist that the Earth provides its own resources for the development of life.
“We now believe that the materials that built our planet were much more hydrogen-rich than we had previously thought,” he added. “The discovery supports the idea that the formation of water on Earth is a natural process, not a hydrated asteroid fluke that fires our planets after the planet has formed.”
However, the findings cannot undoubtedly confirm the theory of life on earth. There is still a possibility that a high hydrogen metstone could help us. Yet new evidence makes a strong claim that the ancient Earth had the capacity to form all of its water in itself. You don’t need space rocks.
Other deals, reviews, and purchase guides
