Scientists have long been trying to figure out where Earth’s oceans came from. Many have believed for decades that the large pools of water were formed after a huge cluster of comets struck the Earth over 3.8 billion years ago. After a recent study on the Rosetta spacecraft, scientists are going back on what they once believed and are now saying it was asteroids, not commons that formed the oceans. This is after discovering that the asteroids contain frost on them.
The Rosetta spacecraft is currently orbiting 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet that stretches 2.5 miles wide. After testing, the discovery was made that the oceans were probably birthed from the asteroids and not comets like originally thought. The comet that the aircraft is orbiting is estimated to be about 260 million miles from the sun. Once it gets warmer, it is likely to develop a tail which is common for comets.
Comets are likely the source due to the fact they are made of ice and sometimes get past the sun. They also resulted in the creation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago after bumping into each other for over 800 million years.
These infamous icebergs are now held responsible for creating the oceans we have today. The Earth was said to be a ball of magna when first formed. This pushes scientists to look elsewhere for the answers to how the oceans came about. Now, they are going to the skies to figure out these answers.
This isn’t a new thought for scientists. They actually became suspicious about 3 years ago when the Herschel telescope noted ice in the Hartley 2 comet. This heavy water found within the comets could hold the answers to the creation of the oceans and Earth in general.
