Water fingerprints
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/
Saturday, October 8th 2011
Ever wonder how water came to Earth? Well, astronomers think that water couldn’t have existed on Earth at the beginning. The sun was so hot, any water would have evaporated. So where did the water come from? In one episode of Quirks and Quarks, a radio show on CBC, the host Bob McDonald interviews Dr. Darek Lis, a Senior Research Associate in Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He and his colleagues have found a trace of water on Comet Hartley 2 when it hurtled past in 2009. They found that the water on this particular comet has the same chemical fingerprint as the water on Earth. This suggests that the water that’s on Earth came from the same place as the comet, the distant Kuiper belt, rather than perhaps the much closer asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
My thoughts
I think that this is very interesting, and that it really could help us learn about the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Knowing where all our water came from would help us understand who we are and how we came to be. It could also give us a hint about alien life. Who knows, maybe there’s a planet out there that sustains life because of the water. This article really sparked my interest, so maybe you should check it out, too.
Well written summary Petra. This is very interesting indeed! :) I think it is so exciting that we can actually see that there is water on a comet that just flies past the Earth. Good reflection on all of your current events. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Petra!
ReplyDeleteI think you chose a great article to write about. I think you also ahd a great summary. I think it is very interesting because I really like learning about space and what happened in the past!
Nadia :)
cool i saw this while i was looking for something online
ReplyDelete