You have probably heard the theory that water appeared on Earth due to asteroids. Perhaps you’ve also heard that no, the asteroids couldn’t bring all the water on our planet. But the experiment with fake asteroids showed that could.
Scientists from brown University have found that molten rock asteroids “hold amazingly large volumes of water”. And it’s important for the history of not only our, but also other planets.
“If the collision of asteroids with the surface successfully capture water for growing planets in other planetary systems — and we have every reason to believe that it is happening on many planets should have water,” says the study’s author TERIK Gave. “If the water is liquid (and not in the form of vapor or ice), then bingo, you will receive one of the three most important ingredients for life”.
In the experiment used vertical gun NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range. Since 1960-ies it helps in the research of high-speed collisions, developed in the framework of the project “Apollo”. For the experiment, which took place in a vacuum, the scientists charged 2.5-meter gun layout of the asteroid of the mineral antigorite, which launched five times faster than a bullet (20,000 kilometers per hour) at an angle of 45 degrees into a pile of dehydrated volcanic pumice, which was like our Earth.
The result was a mixture of pieces of meteorite, breccias (rock from a pile of related pieces) and glass, which appeared due to the heat during the stroke. All three contain water from the remaining pieces of the asteroid. Water vapor, which escaped from the meteorite was a breccia and glass.
The experiment itself was beautiful, as its result, said Catherine altwegg of the University of Bern in Switzerland. Importantly, it showed the viability of the theory that asteroids could fill Earth with water. The work was published in Science Advances.
Experiment with a gun proved that asteroids could have brought water to Earth
Ilya Hel