Earth's Water Came From Atmosphere, Magma Oceans

Research from Carnegie Science’s Anat Shahar, along with UCLA’s Edward Young and Hilke Schlichting, suggests the water found on our planet may have originated from the interplay between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and molten lava seas of the early planetary bodies that constituted the early stages of Earth’s formation, SciTechDaily reported.

Photo Insert: As larger objects crashed into each other, the baby planetesimals that formed Earth grew both larger and hotter, melting into a vast magma ocean due to the heat of collisions and radioactive elements.

Their research was recently published in the journal Nature. Historically, our understanding of planetary formation was largely influenced by the example of our own solar system.

Even though the genesis of gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn still sparks discussions among scientists, there is a broad consensus that Earth and other terrestrial planets were formed from the accumulation of dust and gas that once orbited around our Sun in its youth.

As larger objects crashed into each other, the baby planetesimals that formed Earth grew both larger and hotter, melting into a vast magma ocean due to the heat of collisions and radioactive elements.

As the planet cooled, the densest material sank inward, separating Earth into three distinct layers—the metallic core, and the rocky, silicate mantle and crust. However, exoplanet research over the past decade informed a new approach to modeling the Earth’s embryonic state.

“Exoplanet discoveries have given us a much greater appreciation of how common it is for just-formed planets to be surrounded by atmospheres that are rich in molecular hydrogen, H2, during their first several million years of growth,” Shahar said.

Using a new model, the Carnegie and UCLA researchers were able to demonstrate that early in Earth’s existence, interactions between the magma ocean and a molecular hydrogen proto-atmosphere could have given rise to some of Earth’s features, such as its abundance of water and its overall oxidized state.

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